New Delhi: Housing and Urban Affairs Minister, Manohar Lal, launched the 'Swachh Shehar Jodi' (SSJ) initiative for handholding 200 cities in urban waste management, an official statement said on Saturday. SSJ pairs 72 top-performing “mentor” cities with approximately 200 low-ranking “mentee” cities in a structured mentorship framework.
"The SSJ initiative represents one of the largest time-bound and structured mentorship frameworks in the urban waste management sector, aiming to foster knowledge and experience sharing, peer learning and transforming best practices in sanitation and waste management across urban India," the statement said.
The SSJ initiative officially pairs the mentor with mentee cities that will get direct exposure to well-performing cities to replicate their best practices. State urban development ministers, mayors, commissioners, and senior officials gathered at a national event in Sonipat to sign memoranda of understanding for the sanitation and waste management program to be conducted over the next 100 days.
During this period, each mentor–mentee pair will collaboratively develop action plans with clearly defined milestones – focusing on experience sharing and knowledge transfer, the release added. “SSJ is a dynamic platform for knowledge-sharing, mentoring, and handholding. The aim is clear that every mentee city should improve their swachhata outcome by learning from the best cities,” said S Katikithala, Secretary, MoHUA.
The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs will provide strategic direction and policy-level support to ensure effective implementation of the Swachh Shehar Jodi across states. This is being supported under the capacity building initiative of the Swachh Bharat Mission, the ministry said. Nearly 300 MoUs were signed across the nation, leading to the creation of a dynamic platform for knowledge-sharing, mentoring, and handholding, which will be evaluated in the Swachh Survekshan 2026 survey, the release noted.
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