Mysuru: The Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) is ready for Swachh Survekshan Survey-2018, a litmus test to be conducted by the Ministry of Urban Development, to identify the cleanest city in India.

The team from Quality Council of India (QCI) that will assess the city in cleanliness parameters will arrive in city next week and this time, the MCC is hoping to regain the “Cleanest City” tag for Mysuru that it had lost in 2017 after being in the top position in 2014-2015 and 2015-2016. In the last survey (2016-2017), Mysuru slipped to the fifth slot.

This time, however, the challenge for the MCC is multi-fold as it has to compete with 4,041 towns and cities across the country. Along with Mysuru, seven towns including H.D. Kote, T. Narsipur, Hunsur, Periyapatna, K.R. Nagar, Bannur, and Nanjangud will be part of the survey. This is the first time that towns — other than Mysuru — in the district are part of the survey, which will be conducted till March 10, 2018.

Gearing up for the survey, the Pourakarmikas are working three to four hours extra to ensure cleanliness. Speaking to Star of Mysore this morning, MCC Commissioner G. Jagadeesha said that the QCI team will arrive in city next week as it was communicated that the survey will be held in Mysuru in the second week of January. The team will survey the city for three to four days and the exact date of their arrival will be communicated later, he said.

Once the team arrives, the MCC will lead the inspection drive and the QCI team will be split into four teams that will also comprise MCC officials. These sub-teams will individually visit waste segregation plants in Mysuru, vegetable and meat markets, ring road surroundings and one team will exclusively look into the cleanliness aspects of city centre and the  residential areas.

Along with the collection of data on waste collection from the source, segregation and disposal, the team will survey the ring road and surrounding villages that come under Gram Panchayats to assess their role in Mysuru maintaining its cleanliness, Jagadeesha added.

Explaining other measures, the MCC Commissioner said that both regular and contract Pourakarmikas are working overtime to ensure that the city is clean. “Normally, a Pourakarmika starts cleaning work by 5 am every day and wind up by 11.30 am. We are now extending their work by another two to three hours and are providing them with free lunch and even money as overtime. We have divided Pourakarmikas into teams and there are exclusive groups to clean roads. We also have hired workers from the Karnataka Urban Water Supply and Drainage Board to add to the number of Pourakarmikas,” he explained.