Mohali does a clean job, placed 81st

Tribune News Service

Mohali, November 20

Mohali achieved its best Swachh Survekshan rankings by jumping from the 157th rank to 81st this year. It is next only to Patiala in the 13 cities included in the state rankings. The city with 50 MC wards and a population of 1,46,213 (2011 census) scored 3510.06 points in the Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) performance among 372 cities across the country, way higher than the national average of 2072.00 and the state average of 2562.00.

Zirakpur 7th in Punjab

Zirakpur (2893.2) was placed seventh in Punjab and 11th in the zonal rankings in the 50,000 to 1 lakh population category in the latest Swachh Survekshan rankings. Kharar (2230.6) was placed 18th in the state and 39th in the zonal rankings, while Nayagaon (1954.6) is at 21st place in the state and 59th in the zonal rankings. In the less than 25,000 population cities, Lalru (2381.2) was placed 58th in the state and 101 in the zonal rankings.

Kurali shows the way

Kurali bagged the first prize in the 25,000 to 50,000 population Municipal Council category in North India. The door-to-door segregation system and 26 compost pits helped the cause.

Officials said the improved rankings were primarily a result of a jump in service-level progress and ODF++ certification, ensuring toilets in villages and slum areas and better solid waste management.

The garbage-free city (GFC) star ratings, however, made a big dent in the overall rankings as no points have been awarded for it to Mohali. Officials said the Mohali Municipal Corporation had applied for the GFC three-star rating recently. Mohali’s best-ever Swachh Survekshan rankings were in 2018 when it was placed 109th.

The Mohali Municipal Corporation spends Rs18 crore every year, roughly Rs1.5 crore per month, for cleaning, both mechanical and manual. Mayor Amarjit Sidhu said the civic body would recruit 1,000 sanitation employees, which would further strengthen the manual cleaning system. A new contract for mechanical cleaning would also to be awarded, he added.