NMC's lack of sync within cost Nagpur of clean city tag
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Nagpur: The Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) is preparing to raise formal objections over its 27th rank in the Swachh Survekshan 2024-25 with the ministry of housing and urban affairs.
Despite scoring 9,328 out of 12,500 points — an improvement from last year — the city failed to secure the coveted "Clean City" tag or even a garbage-free city (GFC) star. But instead of external shortcomings, it is the civic body's internal dysfunction, lack of planning, and poor coordination that seem to have cost Nagpur its place among India's top clean cities.
Officials continue to highlight notable initiatives like construction and demolition waste processing, compressed biogas plant, and biomining project at Bhandewadi.
These efforts fell flat due to mismanagement, delayed execution, and the inability to present them effectively to central survey teams. Incredibly, key officials did not even review the official Swachh Survekshan toolkit, which details evaluation parameters, said sources in NMC.
Apathy, infighting, and administrative inertia held the city back from improved rankings, sources added.
When the Central evaluation team arrived in Nagpur, they encountered disarray — blazing fires at Bhandewadi dumping ground disrupted the schedule, while delays in biomining further damaged the city's image.
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A major setback came with the sudden transfer of additional commissioner Aanchal Goyal, who laid out a comprehensive action plan.
Sources in NMC claimed that deputy commissioner Vijay Deshmukh, in charge of solid waste management, took little interest in steering the campaign. Despite repeated underperformance, NMC never constituted a dedicated expert taskforce. Departments worked in silos, and no coherent strategy or roadmap was put in place for the survey.
In 2022, NMC hired a Mumbai-based firm KPMG for Rs2.4 crore to handle documentation and data presentation. Though the firm offered six months of free service after their contract ended in December 2024, NMC failed to integrate its own officials with the firm—further eroding internal ownership and morale.
Key public health engineering department officials were absent from planning and monitoring, despite their role in managing water bodies, sewage systems, and desilting operations.
Even the civic chief did not issue any binding instructions to involve the department, resulting in yet another gap in coordination.
"Responsibility was dumped solely on the solid waste management department, while other crucial wings — such as public health engineering, water supply, and toilet infrastructure — remained disengaged. Officials failed to share project documentation or collaborate, exposing a complete breakdown in unified planning," said the source.
Even as municipal commissioner Abhijit Chaudhari says NMC will contest the survey results with the ministry of housing and urban affairs and demand a review, the civic body is now finally talking about building a more robust internal structure for future assessments.
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