“Swachhata App” blossoming in Vizag

Fed up of the errant municipal sweeper who regularly fails to turn up to clear the garbage from your locality? Or forgets to sweep the road and clear the community dustbins? Help is at hand now. All you need to do is click a picture of the garbage dump or overflowing dustbins and post it on the Swachhata (Cleanliness) App, a mobile application on Android and iOS launched by the Union urban development (UD) ministry for addressing complaints related to civic issues.

Anyone can download the app and file complaints. Once a citizen has posted a picture, it will automatically get forwarded to the concerned municipal authority. The app was launched on August 6th 2016, by the Urban Development Minister, Venkaiah Naidu.

To create awareness on the Swachhagrahi and Swachhata app , a programme was conducted on 26th December 2016, at the VUDA Central Park, with MP K. Haribabu being the chief guest. He praised the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) for its effort to beautify the city, especially in the Chavulamadum area. “I have been seeing this area for the last 37 years and this is the first time that it had got a refreshing new look as a result of the Swachh Bharat initiative. It has also led to Visakhapatnam getting recognised as ‘open defecation free’ city,” he said and gave full credit to the GVMC Commissioner and the staff for the city bagging the fifth place among 50 clean cities in India.

GVMC Commissioner M. Harinarayanan appealed to the public for their support to achieve the target of Swachh Bharat, Swachh Andhra and Swachh Visakha by ensuring cleanliness of their surroundings. Mr. Harinarayanan said 1,000 persons had registered themselves as ‘Swachchagrahis’ to prevent ‘open defecation’ in the city. There are also hoardings put up around the city, urging citizens to use the ‘Swachhata’ app to help Vizag get a better rank at the Swatcchata Survey that will be conducted next year.

Chief Medical Officer of Health A. Hemanth, Assistant MOH Muralimohan and sanitary inspectors participated.

Later, K. Haribabu inspected the RTC Complex premises and advised the GVMC Commissioner to improve footpath leading into the complex.