Maharashtra’s Panvel city declared ODF

Panvel cityMaharashtra’s Panvel city has been declared Open Defecation Free (ODF), just 14 months after the formation of Panvel City Municipal Corporation (PCMC).

The State Government has declared it ODF last August but the final stamp from the Central Government came when a team recently visited the city as a part of nation-wide Swachh Sarvekshan survey.

PCMC has focussed on being ODF since its beginning.. The administration has installed individual and community toilets, procured mobile toilets and created awareness.

“Our efforts have paid off. Setting up more toilets and keeping a tab on open defecation have been a continuous process. We are committed to maintaining the ODF tag,” said Sandhya Bawankule, deputy municipal commissioner.

The focus of Swachh Survekshan 2018 has been shifted from process and output based indicators to indicators focusing on outcome and sustainability.

The survey attempts to capture the progress in following 6 broad parameters –

  1. Collection and Transportation of Municipal Solid Waste: to ensure that segregated dry and wet waste is collected daily from the households and our public areas are clean.
  2. Processing and Disposal of Municipal Solid Waste: to encourage cities to process their waste and wherever possible recycle the dry waste.
  3. Sanitation related progress: to verify whether city is ODF with access to toilet available for citizens.  This year even all Petrol Pumps of the country are coming forward to offer their toilets as Public Toilets.
  4. IEC (Information, Education and Communication): Whether cities have started campaigns promoting Swachh Survekshan, engaging citizens in waste management, maintenance of Community and Public Toilets etc.
  5. Capacity Building: to assess whether officials in the ULBs were provided sufficient opportunities to attend trainings and go for exposure visits.
  6. Innovation and Best Practices: This component has been introduced first time in this survey – encourage cities to come forward and share their best practices in Swachh Bharat Mission.  It will help the country to learn how our cities have responded the call for Make India Clean and ODF by October 2019.