GMC cleanliness campaign on Jan 4

Actor Kopil Bora speaks at the event on Thursday. Picture by UB Photos

Guwahati: Swachh Survekshan 2018, an initiative under the Centre's Swachh Bharat Abhiyan to encourage cities to improve urban sanitation, was launched by the Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) in a bid to improve the city's ranking when a central team visits here on January 4.

Guwahati was ranked 134 out of 434 cities in cleanliness under the Swachh mission last year, an improvement from 50 out of 73 cities in a survey conducted last year. The survey will be held in 4,041 cities across the country this year.

The objective of the Survekshan is to encourage largescale citizen participation and create awareness among different sections of society about the importance of working together towards making towns and cities cleaner and a better place to live in. The survey also intends to foster a spirit of healthy competition among towns and cities to improve their service delivery to citizens and, thereby, creating cleaner cities.

GMC commissioner Monalisa Goswami said, "We decided to organise a curtain raiser of Swachh Survekshan 2018 to create awareness about the need for a competitive spirit among the citizens of the city to make it cleaner. There is a need to segregate waste at the source so that garbage disposal can be carried out in a more efficient manner. We have decided to collect dry waste on Tuesdays and Fridays. All toilets at petrol pumps will be notified as public toilets to increase their number. Around 117 public toilets in the city can be found on Google. The city will also be declared open defecation-free very soon."

Two celebrities from the Assamese film and television industry, Kopil Bora and Sagarika Goswami, have been appointed brand ambassadors in the city for the Survekshan. GMC authorities believe that people will listen to their appeal to make the city cleaner.

Mayor Mrigen Sarania also stressed the participation of the public towards making the city cleaner.

"Without public support and cooperation, it is tough to tackle cleanliness. Segregation of waste has not been very successful for lack of awareness."

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