Jalandhar: Jalandhar Municipal Corporation has made a new record this time in the Swachh Survey 2024-25 organized under the Swachh Bharat Mission and has secured 82nd position in the category of cities with a population of up to 10 lakh across the country. This performance is significantly better than last year, when Jalandhar got 239th rank at the national level. Thus, Jalandhar Municipal Corporation has not only brightened the image of the city in the field of cleanliness by rising 157 places, but has also set a new example by coming third in Punjab.
Made a record in ranking but…
In the cleanliness ranking, the Municipal Corporation has secured 157 marks in the rank but has slipped from 91 percent to 40 percent in door-to-door. Despite this, the condition still remains weak in important aspects like door-to-door garbage collection and garbage processing. Although Jalandhar’s ranking improved significantly in the Swachh Survey 2024-25 conducted under the Swachh Bharat Mission, the corporation’s performance was mixed this time. Survey teams visited the city and assessed the actual state of cleanliness in various areas. The teams prepared the report by talking to local people, spot visits, summoning documents from the Municipal Corporation, and surveying over the phone. Although this report shows that Jalandhar Municipal Corporation has done a good job on cleaning residential and commercial areas, the performance in areas like processing of garbage, management of dump sites and cleanliness of water bodies has been very disappointing.
Huge drop in door-to-door collection
The biggest failure of the Municipal Corporation has been seen in door-to-door garbage collection. While this coverage was 91 percent last year, this time it has fallen to 40 percent. The reason behind this is being told that regular lifting of garbage from homes is decreasing. The percentage of separation of wet and dry waste has also come down from 60% to 15%. The processing of waste at Wariana dump yard remained completely closed, due to which the corporation got zero marks on this front. Now the administration has started bio-mining in Wariana, due to which the situation is expected to improve in the coming time.
Marks increased, but challenges remain
Jalandhar has got 6200 marks out of 9000 this time. Jalandhar Municipal Corporation has got third place at the state level. Along with this, the corporation has also got Water Plus rating, which indicates that the water coming out of STP is now as per the standards and it is being used in construction work. It is worth noting that there are 13 municipal corporations among the 166 Urban Local Bodies (ULB) of Punjab. Amritsar and Ludhiana, which have a population of more than 10 lakh, have been excluded from this ranking. Therefore, Jalandhar has got third place out of 11. However, it has got 96th place in the state ranking, which shows that there is still a lot of scope for improvement
