Swachh Survekshan 2021: Areas in which Vizag citizens can share their feedback on

After managing to secure the ninth position in Swachh Survekshan last year, the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) is gearing up to slot the city in a better spot in 2021. In a bid to earn the ‘Cleanest City’ award for Vizag this year, the citizen’s feedback is set to play a crucial role. As the survey began on 1 January, the GVMC took to Twitter to share information with the public of Vizag regarding the citizen’s feedback of Swachh Survekshan 2021.

Swachh Survekshan is an annual survey undertaken by the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs to study the cleanliness and sanitation of various cities and towns in India. Every year, the committee releases a list of the cleanest cities in India, to foster a spirit of healthy competition among municipalities of all towns and cities. This falls under the government’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (Urban) scheme and is an attempt by the central government to ensure that local officials take extra efforts towards ensuring clean spaces for their citizens. The Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) will be evaluated by the central team for six thousand marks. This year around, the overall weightage has been revised.

As per the Swachh Survekshan, all cities would be graded under three categories.

#1 Service Level Progress (SLP)

#2 Certification

#3 Citizen’s Voice

While Service Level Progress accounts for 2,400 marks. The rest of the categories carry 1800 marks each. Under SLP, weightage will be given to Segregated Collection, Processing, and Disposal, and Sustainable Sanitation. Whereas under Certification, 1,100 marks are allotted for Garbage Free City (GFC) for Star Rating and the rest of 700 marks are given for Open Defecation Free Plus (ODF+/ODF++) or SBM Water Plus certification. It may be recalled that the GVMC has applied under three categories, i.e., garbage-free city (GFC), Open Defecation-Free Plus (ODF++), and SBM Water Plus certification for Swachh Survekshan 2021.

The last category, Citizen’s Voice is sub-divided into Feedback, Engagement, Experience, Swachhata App, and Innovation. The feedback carries 600 marks out of the allocated 1,800 marks for Citizen’s Voice. In this regard, the people of the respective ULCs are required to register their feedback. As the online survey of Swachh Survekshan begun on 1 January, the GVMC has thereby asked citizens of Vizag to let their voices be heard by giving feedback. They can either call on the toll-free number ‘1969’ or download the Swachhata web application to register the citizen feedback in Swachh Survekshan 2021. It may be noted that Face to Face Citizen’s Feedback will be collected between 1 March 2021 and 31 March 2021.

Visakhapatnam stood 3rd in the nation in 2017 under the ‘Cleanest Cities’ category of Swachh Survekshan. Subsequently, the city stood at 7th in 2018 and 23rd in 2019. Climbing up the chart, the GVMC bagged 9th place in 2020.