Swachh Survekshan 2020 to Commence from Jan. 4, 2020, across India

Speed Post News Network

New Delhi : Minister of State (I/C) for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri on December 31, 2019, announced the results of Swachh Survekshan League 2020 (Quarter 1 and Quarter 2) here. Swachh Survekshan 2020, the fifth edition of the annual urban cleanliness survey, conducted by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), Government of India, scheduled to commence from January 4, 2020 across India, was also rolled out on the occasion. Indore, Madhya Pradesh, has topped 10 lakhs and above category.

Swachh Survekshan League 2020 (SS League 2020) was introduced with the objective of sustaining the onground performance of cities along with continuous monitoring of service level performance when it comes to cleanliness. SS League 2020 is being conducted in 3 quarters, i.e. April- June, July – September and October- December 2019 and has 2000 marks for each quarter evaluated on the basis of monthly updation of SBM-U online MIS by cities along with citizen’s validation on the 12 service level progress indicators through outbound calls.

Ranks have been assigned in two categories, namely, cities with population of one lakh and above (with two sub-categories, i.e. 1-10 lakh and 10 lakhs and above) and cities with population of less than 1 lakh (under the < 1 lakh population category, the rankings are given zone and population wise). The performance of cities in SS League 2020 is crucial to their ranking in Swachh Survekshan 2020 due to the 25% weightage of the quarterly assessments to be included in the annual survey scheduled to commence from January 4 till  January 31, 2020, according to a PIB release.

Speaking at the event, Puri said, “Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban (SBM-U) launched in October 2014 by the Prime Minister has completed five years of its journey. Today, urban India has become Open Defecation Free¹. More importantly, there has been a perceptible and visible change in the condition of public toilets in the country. The focus of the Ministry has always been on ensuring the sustainability of the sanitation value chain as is evident in the SS 2020 parameters where wastewater treatment and reuse, and faecal sludge management have been given special attention. The ODF+, ODF++ and Water+ Plus Protocols by the Ministry work as the guiding document for cities in this regard.”

Puri also elaborated on the other crucial component of the Mission, solid waste management (SWM). “SWM, the bigger of the two challenges saw slow progress initially, however, there is a tremendous improvement in the way waste is being collected, segregated and treated in urban India. Apart from Swachh Survekshan, innovative frameworks such as the Star Rating Protocol for Garbage Free Cities is enabling institutionalisation of good practices such as source segregation, scientific processing of waste, dumpsite remediation, penalties & spot fines for littering, and compliance of bulk waste generators, amongst others. The Ministry is also fully committed to realising the Prime Minister’s vision of a single use plastic (SUP) free India by 2022. To this end, we have collaborated with the Cement Manufacturing Association and the National Highway Authority of India to promote reuse of plastic in road construction.”

Outlining the way forward for SBM-U,  Puri said, “Going forward, the Ministry will be focusing on 100% processing and safe disposal of solid waste, complete faecal sludge and septage management and wastewater treatment and reuse.”

Durga Shanker Mishra, Secretary, MOHUA, added, “Today, the sustainability of the Mission reflects in the fact that 937 of our cities are ODF+, 328 cities are ODF++. We are also making use of technology to make toilets more accessible by mapping over 57,000 public toilet blocks across 2,300 cities on Google Maps.”