Challenging Swachh Survekshan league’s zero star rating to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) in the garbage-free city section, the civic body has written a letter to the Centre pointing out loopholes in the rating process.
The results of the rating were declared by the Centre this week, wherein BMC failed in one of the parameters of “sweeping of public, commercial and residential areas”.
The BMC challenged the evidence uploaded by the third-party auditor on the basis of which the ratings were given. In its letter, a copy of which is with HT, BMC has also questioned the credibility of the third-party auditor.
The BMC had applied for a five-star rating in the garbage-free city section in Swachh Survekshan League 2020, following which a team of third-party auditor visited the city for a survey. The team submitted a photo which showed a garbage pile up and was the basis for the zero-star rating. The BMC in its letter has challenged the authenticity of the photo stating that the evidence is tampered with.
The garbage-free city rating is a prelude to the announcement of rankings for Swachh Survekshan-2020. The final rankings are likely to be announced after the lockdown is over.
A senior civic official, requesting anonymity, said, “The physical site shown in the photo and the location marked does not match at all. Also, the metadata of the photo reveals that the image was modified in March. The evidence is clearly tampered with.”
Hinting that such tampering may deter the city to participate in surveys, the letter stated, “Such tampering of evidence is unacceptable and raises a grave concern on the third-party auditor, data compilers and the results declared without request for clarification. This is tremendously disheartening for the morale of city staff and in future may deter the cities from participating in such activities.”
Mumbai was ranked 49th among 425 cities in the 2019 Swachh Bharat Survekshan, a steep fall from its 18th rank in 2018. The Swachh Survekshan 2020, conducted by the central government, ranks cities across the country on the basis of cleanliness at public places.
