Officials to tour BJP-ruled MP to study Indore sanitation model
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The move comes months ahead of the local body elections, where the govt's performance on civic issues is expected to be a major campaign theme.
A delegation led by local self govt special secretary T V Anupama will visit Indore from July 8 to 10 to study the city's solid waste management practices and sanitation systems. The visit is based on the city's consistent record as the country's cleanest under the Swachh Survekshan rankings.
A govt order approving the visit was issued on July 2.
This is not the first time that a CPM-led govt in Kerala is turning to BJP-governed states for insights into administrative systems. In 2022, a team led by then chief secretary V P Joy visited Gujarat from April 27 to 29 to study its real-time e-governance dashboard and described the Gujarat model as "remarkable".
The latest visit, also coinciding with the chief minister's current trip to the US for follow-up treatment, has once again brought focus to the LDF govt's approach of borrowing governance models from states it has traditionally criticised.
It has also reignited political discussions on the CPM's shifting stance on engaging with BJP-ruled states.
Back in 2013, the party took a sharp position against even symbolic engagements with BJP leaders. When then labour minister Shibu Baby John met the then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi in Ahmedabad to discuss labour sector practices, CPM demanded that chief minister Oommen Chandy clarify the govt's position.
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Pinarayi Vijayan, then CPM state secretary, was vocal in stating that there was "nothing in Gujarat's labour sector Kerala needs to learn.
" The party even demanded Shibu's resignation.
In contrast, the current official visit to Indore is being undertaken without much political commentary from the CPM, though it comes at a time when the state's own waste management record has been severely criticised. The Brahmapuram fire incident in 2023, which choked Kochi with toxic smoke for days, prompted widespread public outrage and legal scrutiny, exposing serious flaws in Kerala's waste handling infrastructure.
"With the local body polls nearing, civic issues like garbage management, sanitation and public health are expected to dominate public discourse. The Indore visit, while aimed at adopting best practices, may also be viewed through the lens of political messaging and damage control," a senior official in the department said on conditions of anonymity.
While officials maintain that there is no contradiction in studying successful models regardless of which party governs a state, political observers say such visits inevitably draw attention when past statements and current actions appear misaligned. The key question, however, remains whether these study tours will translate into meaningful reforms on the ground or remain symbolic gestures without follow-through, as happened with the 2022 Gujarat tour.
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