In what could be the proudest moment for Navi Mumbaikars, the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) has been ranked third among the cleanest cities in the country in the 'Swachh Sarvekshan 2023' and has consistently maintained the first position in the state of Maharashtra. This year, Indore and Surat have been given the first rank nationally, followed by Navi Mumbai.
The garbage free city
Apart from this, Navi Mumbai has received the highest 7 Star rating for the garbage free city. It is the only city in the state and one of the two cities in the country to receive seven stars. Along with this, Navi Mumbai has maintained the highest waterplus rating in the ODF category of pollution-free cities.
In the grand prize distribution ceremony of 'Swachh Sarvekshan 2023' held at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi, under the auspices of the President of India Draupadi Murmu, the Commissioner of Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation Rajesh Narvekar accepted the award. Union Urban Development and Housing Minister Hardeep Singh Puri and Union Secretary Manish Joshi and other dignitaries were also present on the occasion.
Narvekar was accompanied by the Additional Commissioner Sujata Dhole, City Engineer Sanjay Desai, Deputy Commissioner of Solid Waste Management Department and Nodal Officer of Swachh Bharat Mission Dr. Babasaheb Rajale, Additional City Engineer Manoj Patil and Shirish Aradwad.
"Cleanliness has become the identity of of Navi Mumbai"
“Cleanliness has now become the identity of the city of Navi Mumbai and due to the increasing active participation of the citizens of the city who are aware of the cleanliness, the rating of Navi Mumbai in cleanliness has been continuously raised and the result of this award is dedicated to the contribution of cleanliness-loving citizens and sanitation workers,” Municipal Commissioner Rajesh Narvekar said and expressed the opinion that this national award is the result of the combined work of sanitation workers, officials, employees, public representatives.
Under the 'Swachh Sarvekshan 2023', the central inspection team of 'Swachh Bharat Mission' conducted the inspection of documents as well as citizens and ranked accordingly.
Specific works under Swachh Sarvekshan 2023:
*NMMC emphasized on effective public participation. Therefore, it got to see the picture of a movement of cleanliness in the city through the participation of citizens. Specially, keeping in mind the goal of 'citizen's initiative for cleanliness, today's day is the honour of sanitation workers', close to 4,000 citizens from all wards of NMMC took a day off from their daily cleaning work to the sanitation workers on different days and cleaned the entire section and honoured the work of the sanitation workers in different ways.
*People's representatives, various NGOs, boards, women and senior citizens' organizations actively contributed in this. A particularly significant aspect of citizen participation in sanitation activities is that the people participated in these activities in large numbers spontaneously.
*Three activities implemented by the NMMC under the 'Indian Swachhata League' were recorded in the 'Best of India Record'. In the first record-breaking activity, more than 1 lakh citizens and students gathered together in eight divisions and took cleanliness oath and mangrove cleaning campaign was implemented. Also, a record of 26,000 citizens took digital cleanliness oath in one single day. Similarly, record participation of 2.83 lakh students participated in clean painting competition.
*The innovative concepts of 'Recycle Mart' in D Mart and 'Recycle Bazaar' in Apna Bazar, which offer discount points for buying new items in exchange for dry waste like drinking water bottles, glass items, also received a good response.
*In the initiative carried out with Scrapnest -- 'Three R on Wheels', which goes to the homes of the citizens and collects junk and other dry waste from them and pays them the amount, also got favour of the citizens.
*The 'Dry Waste Bank' implemented by students in some schools of the Municipal Corporation not only encouraged students about cleanliness, but also inculcated the habit of cleanliness in their minds. This concept is planned to be implemented in all schools soon.
*The unique concept of 'gaming zone' created under the Sanpada flyover with beautification has been specially noted at the national level. The work of Navi Mumbai has reached the world after noted industrialist Anand Mahindra tweeted about it.
*Two aspirational toilets have been constructed at Koparkhairane as per the criteria of the Central Government and the special thing is that the concept of 'sustainable from waste' has been used effectively, attractively and very artistically while constructing these toilets.
*'Fish Fed', an innovative initiative implemented on a pilot basis in the Diwale fish market, that sought innovative solutions to fish waste, was noticed at the national level.
*NMMC has been doing mechanical cleaning since the beginning to provide safety to the cleaners who clean the sewage channels and septic tanks and along with this, health camps have been organized for the cleaners and their families.
*A state-of-the-art C&D Waste project was implemented in Navi Mumbai to solve the problem of construction and demolition waste i.e. debris. The gravel and sand produced from this project are being used for construction and various facility works of the Municipal Corporation. Just as some big cities are taking steps to implement CNG gas generation and power generation projects from wet waste as per the government policy, the NMMC has always been experimenting on the same lines and started taking positive steps in this regard.
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