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New Indian Express

Corporation draws flak as Madurai ranks last in Swachh survey

MADURAI: With Madurai ranked last in the 40th place in Swachh Survekshan 2024 - 25 among cities having 10 lakh -population category, the city corporation has come in for severe criticism from activists. In response, the civic body has assured to work on the weaknesses and fare better next year. It is a small consolation that Madurai ranks third among TN cities, after Coimbatore and Chennai. Pointing out that the city has been given single digit rating in the waste management and processing category, activists said the corporation must take corrective measures immediately. K Jayachandran, a city based activist, said, "The corporation has established 38 micro composting centres (MCC) but only 30 centres are operational. Also, the MCCs are not fully utilised and hardly 40 - 50 tons of waste is processed on a daily basis. The centres have total capacity to process 190T of waste daily. The city corporation must utilise these MCCs better and improve processing rate." According to sources in the corporation, an average of 850 tonnes of waste is generated in the city daily. These are processed in 30 MCCs. Speaking about the measures the civic body has planned to implement to address the issues mentioned in the Swachh report, corporation commissioner Chitra Vijayan said, "All processes are being reviewed by officials and we will improve everything one by one. Madurai will have better results in the next survey." Corporation officials say they will increase the volume of waste processed at MCCs significantly. Also, the waste-to-energy plant that is proposed to be established in Vellakkal dump yard under CITIES 2.0 scheme will process over 600 tonnes of waste. Officials added that the implementation of these projects would improve waste generation and processing. As regards public toilets, the corporation has taken up renovation of several facilities across the city. Report Card Cleanliness of market areas, water bodies and residential areas - 100 % Waste generation & processing - 4% Cleanliness of public toilets - 3% Score - 4,823/12,500 marks Rank - 40 among 40 cities