Bhubaneswar: With the arrival of a four-member Central observation team of Swachh Survekshan-2018 Monday, people have started speculating about Bhubaneswar’s position among 4041 cities that are participating in the competition.
The fate of Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation will depend on how much it will secure out of total 4000 marks (1400 for documentation, 1400 for citizen feedback and 1200 for field visit).
The team has started verifying the documents. As per the guideline of Swachh Bharat Mission, they have also gone through the documents relating to sanitation management.
Sources said this document verification component plays an important role as it carries negative marks. The team is said to be trying to find out what steps the civic body has taken for sanitation — from scavenging to garbage treatment, from setting up toilets to making people aware of total cleanliness and open defecation. And the team members are supposed to give negative marks, if they find a mismatch between the documents and their observations during their visit to various places.
Earlier, the team had an interaction meeting with BMC officials and additional commissioner Subham Saxena. Similarly, a separate review meeting was held with city health office staff, including sanitary inspectors, additional health officers and SBA cell staff.
Citizens fear their city may lose some marks because of its poor performance in the management of solid wastes. In case of management of bio medical wastes, solid wastes, construction wastes, plastic wastes and e-wastes featured in Solid Waste Management Rules-2016, BMC is said to have done nothing remarkable.
While e-waste management has not gone beyond a workshop, the plastic waste management has been limited to polythene restrictions. And all the other waste managements are still at the preparation level, sources claimed.
“The team earlier had a three-day visit schedule. But as it wants to cover almost all the area of the city, it will stay more than three days,” said a BMC official adding deputy commissioner, sanitation, Lalatendu Sahu has been declared as the nodal officer of all the survey-related issues.
PNN
