Perturbed by the news reports of the Thane Municipal Corporation being “blacklisted” by the Union Urban Development Department, municipal commissioner Nandkumar Jantre came out strongly against such misleading reports. Clarifying the rating done by the UDD under the National Urban Sanitation Policy, Mr Jantre said that the term “blacklisted” that is being used by the media is a misnomer intended to malign the civic body’s reputation.
Mr Jantre said that the ratings were done on the basis of a survey of sewage treatment systems, solid waste management, defecating in the open and overall cleanliness in important cities of the country under the National Urban Sanitation Policy. Based on the findings of the survey, the cities have been colour-coded into four categories — red, black, blue and green.
In the red colour-code are cities that have scores of 0 to 33 per cent, which, as per the policy stands for cities on the brink of public health and environment “emergencies” that need immediate action. Black is a notch above consisting of cities with a score of 33 to 66 per cent. Blue comprises cities with sanitation scores of 67 to 90 per cent and indicates that the cities are recovering but still diseased. Lastly, those that earn a score of 91 to 100 per cent belong to the green colour-code that represents a healthy, clean city.
“This rating does not indicate the overall status of the civic body. It only indicates the situation on the sanitation front. The fact that the TMC is in the black colour category does not mean it is blacklisted. Being in the red category would be worse,” said Mr Jantre. He said that the civic body was taking several steps to come out out of the black colour-code.