In a shocking revelation Srinagar city has been again listed among dirtiest cities across India, securing the 357th rank in Swachh Survekshan 2019 and has stepped down by 110 ranks than the previous year.
The data which was revealed by Ministry of Housing and Union Affairs last week, Srinagar city has secured 357th rank with 1470.42 marks out of 4000. The survey was conducted in January 2019 and it has covered around 4,237 cities across India.
According to the survey, Indore (Madhya Pradesh) has been adjudged India’s cleanest city for a third straight year, following Ambikapur in Chhattisgarh and Mysore in Karnataka.
Data reveals that Jammu city has been ranked 329th position, that is 28 ranks better than the Srinagar city. The irony is that summer capital has been listed among dirtiest cities in Jammu and Kashmir as compared to Anantnag, Jammu, and Tangmarg respectively.
Anantnag is ranked at 258th position and has scored 2012.16 marks while as Jammu is ranked at 329th position and has scored 1635.39 marks. It added that Tangmarg has been ranked at 335th position and scored 1600.52.
SMC, Chief Sanitation Officer (CSO), Syed Nisar blamed people for not following the SMC guidelines properly. When any team from Centre visits here, people don’t provide them positive feedback, he said.
“People are not co-operating with us and that is the main reason for poor rankings. We are providing better services as compared to other cities but due to negative approach by the people SMC has gone in reverse mode,” Syed said.
Another reason for low rankings, he claimed is that the Corporation lags behind in the construction of individual latrines in many areas of the city.
Quoting 2011 census, he said at least 6000 people were not having individual latrines. Only 4000 households have been verified till now. In these developments, we lag behind.
He termed coming of Corporates as a good sign for the city development. “Now the gap between SMC and people will be less as compared to previous years,” Syed said.
According to him, SMC has taken some progressive measures for sanitation of the city, adding that SMC has already provided color-coded dustbins in the city.
A group of people at Karanagar blamed SMC for the garbage mess in the city. According to them, both SMC and administration is responsible for the worst rankings.
Mohammad Iqbal at Jehangir Chowk said, from past 3 months there have been continuous controversies between Mayor and Deputy Mayor.
“They are always blaming each other and have done nothing done for the development of the city,” he said.
Deputy Mayor SMC, Shiekh Imran told Kashmir Post they are working to make Srinagar a clean and green city. “I assured you that you would see the visible change in the upcoming year,” he said.
“Our aim and objective is to make Srinagar as one of the best cities in the country. We are working tirelessly,” Imran said adding that there are also some problems but they will try to tackle them in future.
