Madhya Pradesh’s Indore has bagged the award for the cleanest city in India for two consecutive years. Now, the Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) has asked the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) to give the city a seven-star in the 2019 sanitation survey of Swachh Survekshan, according to a recent Dainik Jagran report. Indore city, in the state of Madhya Pradesh (MP) which has made this claim, has become the first city in the country to do so. A team from the central government’s ministry may visit the city anytime after 22nd December 2018 for conducting the survey. It is believed that the survey will be conducted for four-five days.
IMC has started preparing for the survey in full swing, the report said. If Indore bags the seven-star rating, then 1000 points will be rewarded to the city out of the 5000 point sanitation survey. After receiving the double-plus open-defecation free (ODF) certificate, Indore has already received 250 points. With the seven-star rating, the city will obtain a total of 1250 points. This year, the sanitation survey is due in January because of the Lok Sabha elections in 2019. The Urban Development Ministry is trying to declare the results of the survey by the end of January. The survey will be conducted in 4203 cities, similar as last year. At present, no other city except Indore has put a claim for seven-star ratings. After the survey, it will take at least 10-15 days to analyze the work done by the cities.
Under the star rating survey initiative, the Union Ministry will be rating cities on a 7-star rating system based on multiple cleanliness indicators for solid waste management. Some indicators include door-to-door collection, bulk generator compliance, source segregation, sweeping, scientific processing of waste, scientific land filling, plastic waste management, construction and demolition management etc. Under this system, cities are required to carry out self-assessment and self-verification for achieving a certain star rating. This self-declaration will be further verified through an independent third party agency appointed by MoHUA for 3-star, 5-star and 7- star garbage-free ratings on an yearly basis.
The rating system has been designed in a way to enable cities to gradually evolve into a model (7-star) city, with progressive improvements in their overall cleanliness and sanitation. Cities can be rated as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 7 star based on their compliance with the protocol conditions which are specified for each of the rating. Besides, a city must be ODF (Open Defecation Free) before it could be given rating of 3 star or above it.
