A team from Mysuru City Corporation led by the Mayor recently visited the country’s cleanest city to inspect how it has been consistently getting the top recognition on annual Swachh Survekshan
After visiting Indore, the country’s cleanest city, the Mysuru City Corporation has proposed to introduce some new initiatives on the lines of the Madhya Pradesh city’s model to make an impact in the Swachh front and be in the contention for the cleanest city tag like it was in the beginning under the Swachh Bharat Mission.
An MCC team led by Mayor Shivakumar recently visited Indore to see the cleanliness model and explore possibilities of replicating ideas in Mysuru. The team had discussions with elected representatives and the officials from the Indore Municipal Corporation. They also discussed the new projects and visited the recycling plants.
The MCC has now resolved to appoint additional pourakarmikas to take up cleanliness initiatives in two shifts like in Indore. In this regard, a proposal will be sent to the State government, Mr. Shivakumar said after a meeting here on Wednesday. The decision was taken at the meeting in which the councilors and the officials took part.
The meeting resolved to introduce the best practices and climb to the top post in the Swachh front, adopting the ideas and models that existed in Indore.
“To adopt the Indore model, the MCC has to appoint additional pourakarmikas. The State government must make a special provision for Mysuru, which was once the country’s cleanest city and give consent for appointing the pourakarmikas,” said the Mayor, after the meeting.
Mr. Shivakumar said a special appeal will be made to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah for releasing special funds to the MCC for Swachh activities.
He said Indore has banned single-use plastic and no plastic waste is found in the city. The pourakarmikas there work in two shifts. Separate teams collect waste from the households. The waste in commercial areas are collected by separate teams. All vehicles engaged in solid waste collection are monitored remotely. If the vehicles do not reach the designated spots on time, the driver will get calls from the control room and reasons are sought for the delay, he explained.
The Indore corporation has been successful in spreading awareness on cleanliness, he added.
Indore produces biogas from wet waste. The company producing biogas gives a sum of ₹2.50 crore a year to the corporation. Seven places have been designated for handling building and demolition wastes. The dry wastes are handled in separate plants.
Councillor Ramprasad said enforcement is strict in Indore as penalties are imposed on those throwing wastes in the city. The laws are not properly enforced in Mysuru though similar laws exist in Indore as well. “We need to strive hard to introduce the Indore model in the city.”
Another councillor K.V. Sridhar suggested for strict segregation of waste at source in Mysuru city.
Indore has 10,000 pourakarmikas but Mysuru has 2,200 pourakarmikas though the city’s population is nearly 14 lakhs. “We need at least 4,000 pourakarmikas to handle cleanliness activities. For this, a sum of ₹5 crore additionally is required,” said MCC Commissioner Lakshmikanth Reddy.
