Swachh City Solutions App for garbage free India by April

Urban Development Ministry today announced it would launch a mobile App for citizens to post their complaints about garbage pile-up in their areas and seek timely redress of their grievance.

Named 'Swachh City Solutions', the proposed mobile and web-based application will be developed in partnership with an NGO 'Janaagraha' Centre for Citizenship and Democracy, to ensure timely and effective implementation of the Swachh Bharat Mission objectives in 4041 statutory towns in the country.

A Memorandum of Understanding to the effect was signed today between the Ministry and the NGO 'Janaagraha' here.

The application is likely to become operational by April and will give citizens access to the latest technology to lodge their complaint and actively participate in keeping their cities clean.

Speaking on the occasion, UD Ministry Joint Secretary Praveen Prakash said, "Through this App, the government is providing the citizens with a platform to express their concerns regarding their areas and build community participation and consensus towards maintaining the cleanliness in their cities."

Prakash, who is also the Mission Director for Swachh Bharat said "The App will also enable municipal officials/field engineers to see each complaint and update the status of the resolution along with photos, hence building accountability in the system by ensuring timely grievance redressal."

Citizens will have features that will allow them to view complaints posted nearby, and show support by 'Voting up' on various complaints.

The App, in addition to enabling the creation of a community around complaints, leading to community participation and faster complaint resolution, will also enable the Ministry to rate and rank the 4041 urban local bodies (ULBs) in India, based on their efficiency of redressing citizen grievances.

The application aims at realising the vision of Swachh Bharat Mission towards a clean and garbage free India by 2019.

(Image credits: Reuters)