The city is coming to terms with the delay in disposal of legacy waste which is one of the factors that affected Mysuru’s overall ranking in Swacch Survekshan 2023.
The results of the survey conducted by Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs were announced on Thursday and Mysuru which used to be ranked nationally within the top five clean cities, was ranked 23rd in the country.
This is the lowest-ever ranking under the survey which was launched in 2014 and has stunned the authorities. But Mysuru Deputy Commissoner K.V. Rajendra said here on Friday that the legacy waste was a serious challenge and going forward it would be addressed.
The theme of Swacch Survekshan 2023 was Waste To Wealth and sources in the MCC said that there was a legacy waste of nearly 4 lakh tons that has accumulated over the years and need to be recycled as it was a major eyesore within the city.
The project to clear the legacy waste has received government clearance for which nearly ₹14.38 crore has been approved and is under tendering process, according to MCC officials.
The other factor which has led to Mysuru’s decline is the poor waste segregation at source. The Swacch Survekshan 2023 report card for Mysuru indicates that the city has scored 70 per cent under source segregation out of a possible score of 300. Under waste generation vs processing, it scored 94 per cent while it has 97 per cent under door-to-door collection of waste. Out of a maximum mark of 9500 Mysuru scored 7753.5.
Though citizens participation by way of participation in the survey was one of the factors in the past to have lowered Mysuru’s ranking, this time the city scored 1880.9 out of 2170 marks. Indore, which was ranked 1st out of 446 ULBs surveyed, scored 2139 under this category.
Mr. Rajendra also hinted at the overlapping of the jurisdiction of local bodies with that of MCC and MUDA which could be another factor. He called for greater coordination among these bodies which could have led to lack of adequate response.
A senior official of the MCC on conditions of anonymity said that there was ‘’lack of team work’’ and ‘’absence of coordination’’ among different agencies which led to the dismal ranking of Mysuru. Incidentally, the Mysuru MP Pratap Simha had convened a meeting of different stakeholders including the local bodies early this week and cautioned them that they were responsible for waste management that was otherwise being dumped along the outer ring road which underlined the lack of responsibility on handling the waste.
