Udaipur was ranked a lowly 310 out of 434 cities in ‘Swachh Survekshan-2017’ announced yesterday by the Government. The ranking had resulted in feelings of shock, despair and anger amongst a large number of citizens of Udaipur. Towards that Mayor and Commissioner of Udaipur issued their statements to media about the low ranking of Udaipur.

Chandra Singh Kothari, Mayor, Udaipur said that we were 417th in the last survey and have moved up to 310 now. He said that if the rankings were done today, our rank would surely be much higher. Mayor added that a lot of work has happened over the last two months in the space of ODF (Open Defecation Free) and door to door waste collection.

We will also make manure out of the waste collection and this will surely take us to the top spot in Rajasthan and also amongst the top cities in India, said Kothari.

Echoing Kothari’s views, Commissioner Sidharth Sihag said that a lot of work has been done in the ODF and door to door waste collection areas since February. The cut-off date for the cleanliness survey was December 2016 and hence a lot of our work was missed out.

Sihag also attributed miscommunication as one of the reasons for low rank. He said that despite a large number of awareness programmes conducted by the administration, Udaipur was awarded 0 marks in the same. We carried out awareness campaigns around the ODF points but they were measured at the ODF points and hence missed out.

Sihag added that they were following the Panaji pattern for solid waste collection and engineers and account officers will soon be sent there to understand the techniques and tendering process.

Sihag said that with the efforts on, aim is to get Udaipur in the top-50 cities in the next ranking.