Bengaluru 216th in Swachh Bharat rankings, mayor questions methodology

Rattled with the poor rating given to Bengaluru by Swachh Bharat Survekshan-2018, a top official on Monday questioned the methodology adopted by the Centre for it and claimed the city fared much better than last year.

The city was ranked at 216th spot in the SBS-2018, released on Sunday while Indore was first, followed by Bhopal and Chandigarh in second and third place.

Mysuru, which was in fifth place last year, slipped to eighth place this year.

"We have to see what reasons Urban Development Ministry has given for the ranking. We did better than last year. We have built 400 toilets and segregation at source is happening. So we don't know what parameter they have adopted," Bengaluru Mayor Sampath Raj told PTI.

He said he would hold discussions with officials to find out the reasons behind the poor rating.

The Mayor said he was shocked over Mysuru being rated below Indore and Bhopal as he felt that the royal city was way better than the two cities in Madhya Pradesh.

However, Kathyayini Chamaraj founder of Civic Bengaluru, begged to differ, saying that dumping of waste at public places,littering by citizens, poor handling of solid waste and zero segregation of waste at source led to the poor rating.

She said though manual handling of waste was prohibited, it continued.

"Not a single inch of the two abandoned landfills at Mandur and Mavallipura has been processed. On the other hand, in Indore there are separate bins for collecting dry and wet waste," she said.

She also rued that the 180 local waste processing units that BBMP should have set up, as per a High court order, had not yet come up.

Even ward committees that should have monitored the waste management had not been set up, she added.