Congress slams BMC on Mumbai’s cleanliness

Mumbai :  Sharply criticising the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC)’s after Mumbai was ranked the dirtiest city in the world, the Maharashtra Congress Monday urged Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan’s intervention to “clean up” the metropolis.

In a letter to Chavan, state Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant said a recent international survey by TripAdvisor ranked Mumbai as the world’s dirtiest city and its roads equally bad among 40 cities worldwide.

“This is not the first time that the country’s commercial and the state’s capital Mumbai has faced similar embarrassment. In a 2008 survey, Forbes magazine had ranked the city as the seventh dirtiest in the world,” Sawant said.

A survey by the centre’s Urban Development Department had ranked Mumbai at 45 in terms of public sanitation among cities with a population of one lakh and above.

“According to a report by various bodies including the UNDP, Mumbai requires 64,000 public toilets, but between 1997-2003, only 6,050 public toilets were constructed by the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party ruled BMC. It targetted 35,000 public toilets between 2003-2011, but constructed only 2100. The sight of people answering their nature’s call in the open is a testimony to the unplanned and corrupt administration in the BMC,” Sawant said.

He claimed that till 2012, the BMC administration had failed to utilise funds of Rs.22,000 crore towards various schemes, including achieving ‘zero garbage’ in the city.

“Despite so many reports and surveys, the BMC administration continues to ignore the stark reality,” Sawant said.

“Such irresponsible attitude is not in the interest of the state and the image of Mumbai before the world community. Therefore, you must personally take interest in the BMC affairs and take appropriate steps to rectify the situation,” Sawant urged Chavan.

In a survey among over 75,000 people, Mumbai ranked at the bottom among various parameters including cleanliness, ease of commuting, public transport, safety, taxi services, friendliness of locals, shopping and currency value.

Other cities in the survey included Dubai, Singapore, Tokyo, Zurich, Dubrovnik, Vienna, Stockholm and Munich.