Cleanest city ward rewarded with funds for development

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangaluru, Aug 29, 2016: In order to boost Mangaluru as a cleaner city  and make it to the top in the Swachh Sarveskhana Survey of the Union government next year, Mangaluru City Corporation is thinking of making wards to compete with one another for a monetary reward.

The Task Force on Swachh Mangaluru, presided over by Mayor Harinath, discussed this issue in its second meeting on Saturday. The council of the corporation which would meet on Aug 30, Tuesday would take a final decision on this.

Mayor Harinath told media that the ward which has been selected as the cleanest could be given more funds for development works.  When the wards are made to compete among themselves the onus would be on corporators to put in more efforts to keep their wards clean. It would ultimately help make the entire city clean.  The Mayor said that the prize-winning ward could be awarded with works worth at least Rs. 25 lakh. A proposal would be placed before the council on Aug 30,  Tuesday.

Toilets : Mayor Harinath said that the corporation would build two e-toilets in the city shortly. Each one of them would cost about Rs. 7 lakh.  One of them would be near the commercial complex building of the corporation at Lalbagh.  Though the place for building the second one has not been finalised yet, it could be closer to the KSRTC bus stand at Bejai.

Task force :   The MCC/corporation constituted the task force involving officials and civil society members to seek suggestions and work in unison to keep the city clean.

A Union government team would assess the cleanliness of the city between January 4, 2017 and February 4, 2017 under the Swachh Sarvekshana Survey. Mangaluru would be among the 500 cities to be assessed under it.

The corporation is now gearing up to make it to the top as in the survey for 2013-15, the Union Ministry of Urban Development had rated Mangaluru as the third cleanest among the 476 cities across the country. The sanitation rating was for 2013-15 based on 19 indicators.

Mangaluru scored 64.74 points, Mysuru 65.09 points, and Greater Mumbai Municipal Corporation 64.91 points, a March 11, 2016 letter to urban local bodies by the Ministry.