City 26th in citizens’ engagement

Ramkrishan Upadhyay

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 19

The city is ranked 26 in the citizens’ engagement parameter under the Swachh Survekshan 2020.

Sources said as per the review of the performance, Chandigarh stood far behind in the citizens’ engagement after two weeks of the survey. This is the fifth edition of the annual urban cleanliness survey carried out by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA).

The survey is being conducted across India from January 4 to 31. Over 4,370 cities are participating in the survey this year. The local Municipal Corporation has been participating in the Swachh Survekshan ever since its inception.

National rankings are declared in two main categories of cities — below 1 lakh population and above 1 lakh population.

Vinod Vashisht, convener, City Forum of Residents’ Welfare Organisations, said the city’s result of the first two weeks of the cleanliness survey exposes the chinks in the MC preparations. He said while the city achieved its target of minimum sample size participation (0.1 per cent of the population) and user registrations in Swachhata apps, the MC was lagging far behind at 26th position in the citizens’ engagement parameter.

“Poor citizens’ engagement means that though residents downloaded Swachhata or other local apps but they are not very actively using these.” said Vashisht.

In 2018, the city was ranked first in the country on the citizen feedback parameter.

In the survey, all adults, who have been residents of the city for the past at least six months, can give feedback through their mobiles. One mobile number can be used once for submitting a response.

The citizen engagement component, which has 25 per cent weightage (1,500 marks out of the total 6,000) in the survey, is open to citizens for sharing their experiences since January 4 and will remain so till January 31. One can share feedback either through SS2020 VoteForYourCity App, Swachhata App, Swachh Survekshan 2020 portal www.swachhsurvekshan2020.org or 1969 Swachhata Helpline.

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