Mumbai: Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of State (Independent Charge), for Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), while launching the toolkit for Swachh Survekshan (SS) 2021, the sixth edition of the annual cleanliness survey of urban India, conducted by MoHUA stated, "Every year, the Swachh Survekshan is redesigned innovatively, to ensure that the process becomes more robust, with a focus on sustaining the behaviour change."
"Unlike the last year, keeping in mind the Ministry's efforts towards ensuring the sustainability of the sanitation value chain, the SS-2021 indicators focus on parameters pertaining to wastewater treatment and reuse along with fecal sludge," he added.
Durga Shanker Mishra, Secretary, MoHUA, was also present on the occasion who made a detailed presentation on the methodology and various parameters of Swachh Survekshan 2021.
Minister Puri announced a new category of awards titled 'Prerak Dauur Samman' as part of Swachh Survekshan 2021.
The Prerak Dauur Samman has a total of five additional subcategories -Divya (Platinum), Anupam (Gold), Ujjwal (Silver), Udit (Bronze), Aarohi (Aspiring) - with top three cities being recognized in each. In a departure from the present criteria of evaluating cities on 'population category', this new category will categorize cities on the basis of six select indicator wise performance criteria which are as follows:
• Segregation of waste into Wet, Dry and Hazard categories
• Processing capacity against wet waste generated
• Processing and recycling of wet and dry waste
• Construction & Demolition (C&D) waste processing
• Percentage of waste going to landfills
• Sanitation status of cities
While addressing the participants through a webinar, the Minister also touched upon how Swachh Survekhan has become a tool for citizen engagement in the spirit of a true mass moment for citizens better known as 'Jan Andolan.'
He pointed out that, "This year, the focus on citizen participation has taken a notch higher by introducing indicators that encourage innovations led by citizens, start-ups, entrepreneurs and Swachhata Champions amongst others".