Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) on Wednesday added another feather to its cap. The Quality Council of India (QCI), a third party agency identified by the union ministry of urban development, awarded the ‘Swachhata Certificate’ to Mangaluru for being an open defecation-free (ODF) city.
The feat of the City Corporation assumes significance in view of the forthcoming Swachh Survekshan (re-survey), scheduled for January, 2017. QCI (New Delhi) project manager Abhinav Yadav, who handed over the certificate, said, “The process was undertaken in two stages: document verification, followed by physical inspection. The documents include declarations from wards and schools. During inspection, the surveyors randomly visited market places, residential areas, slums and other places.”
The Council was given the responsibility of inspecting the facilities to check open defecation, added Yadav, reminding that re-survey will be conducted after a period of six months. Explaining the measures that helped in addressing the scourge of open defecation, Kavitha Sanil, chairperson of the Public Health and Education Standing Committee at MCC, said, “I got rid of the laborious procedures and considered the bank accounts of beneficiaries as the only criterion for building individual toilets. As a result, 339 applications for individual toilets were cleared in a speedy manner.”
MCC Commissioner Mohammed Nazeer said, “The QCI team inspected various parts of the city from September 23 to 25 – including market areas and transit points – besides verifying the undertakings given by 287 schools, 280 self-help groups, 5,000 teachers and 67,000 students. As and when the opinions were collected, they were updated online.”
Mayor K Harinath said, “It is also time to recall the deeds of great leaders like B Basavalingappa and Blasius M D’Souza, who set an example in this regard. Basavalingappa, who was a minister in the cabinet of Chief Minister D Devaraj Urs, had banned the practice of carrying night soil. D’Souza, who was the president of the City Municipal Council for a long term, effectively implemented the order.”
Ivan D’Souza, Chief Whip of the state government in the Legislative Council, demanded building more ‘pay and use toilets’, as per the population of the city. Dakshina Kannada MP Nalin Kumar Kateel was happy to acknowledge that Mangaluru has been adjudged open defecation-free.