New Delhi: The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) is taking various steps to up its Swachh game and stay ahead of other cities in the country. Recently GHMC Commissioner B Janardhan Reddy said that the civic body for next three months will intensify swachh Hyderabad activities in order to attain higher levels of cleanliness and sanitation in city. The activities that will be undertaken by the corporation are – levy spot fines on defaulters who defecate or urinate in the open and litter. Swachh Namaskar, an unique initiative where the corporation members will greet everyone with a “Swachh Namaskar” (meaning they will say Swachh Namaste everytime they meet people) instead of the regular way of greeting in a bid to make people aware about Swachh Hyderabad mission. Highlighting more details on the activities, a senior official from the GHMC added,
We are gearing up for Swachh Hyderabad and this is being done as part of the Central Government’s guidelines of Swachh Bharat Mission. With Swachh Namaskar initiative we aim to include more and more members of the city, they will know more about the corporation’s swachh efforts when they are greeted with a swachh message right in the beginning. The corporation is also planning to launch a mobile ringtone that conveys the message regarding the importance of waste segregation.
Commissioner B Janardhan Reddy has also asked GHMC workers to ensure all the houses within the city are aware of Swachh Hyderabad mission and are working in sync with the municipal body. In order to ensure there are no slipups, the officials have been asked to take stock of the situation on a daily basis.
Currently, the GHMC workers are working on to finalise the penalty rates for spot fines that will be levied as “Cleaning charges”.
“We are trying to finalised the penalties at the earliest,” said an official from GHMC.
The city of Nawabs was declared open defecation free (ODF) on August 16, 2017, more than 1,450 public toilets were built by the GHMC as a part of the Swachh Bharat (Urban) initiative. However, post the ODF declaration, the city’s civic body faced a crisis in terms of maintenance of public toilets, as many toilets are dirty, unhygienic and regularly running out of water.
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Currently, Hyderabad has 456 public toilets and 24 She Toilets (Women Only Smart Toilets) are under construction. Moreover, the corporation has already convinced 257 hotels and restaurants and 259 fuel stations in the city to permit general public to use the toilets in their premises.
This is not the first time, GHMC is coming up with unique initiatives, in the past, on the occasion of World Environment Day, the corporation introduced a ‘Swachh Dhooth App’ which encourages waste segregation at source by giving incentives to the citizens. The app is basically a lucky draw system, where one can simply upload the pictures of their segregated waste and stand a chance to win cash prizes of Rs. 1 lakh, Rs. 50,000 and Rs. 25,000. Every month 3 lucky winners are selected through computerised system and awarded with the cash prizes.
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Commissioner B Janardhan Reddy said that the outcome of ‘Swachh Dhooth’ has been positive, but, the corporation is taking more steps in order to reach to more individuals in the city. In Swachh Survekshan 2017, Hyderabad was awarded an overall score of 1,605 out of 2,000 and was ranked 22. Whereas in 2016, the city was at spot 19. These new swachh innitiaves by the corporation are being taken to improve city’s Swachh ranking as well as to sustain its open defecation free tag.
