Bhubaneswar, May 25: The municipal corporation is gearing up for the second round of Union urban development ministry's Swachh Survekshan or cleanliness survey, which will kick off in June.

The city had taken part in the first round of the survey along with 72 other cities in January and was placed 24th in the nationwide ranking. Cuttack was the only other city from the state to have taken part in the survey.

However, this time, the competition is going to be tough for Bhubaneswar as the number of participants has gone up to 500.

The cities have been selected on the basis of their population with the criterion relaxed to one lakh and above instead of 10 lakh earlier.

Bhubaneswar will also be competing with eight other Odisha cities this time. They are Cuttack, Puri, Bhadrak, Balasore, Sambalpur, Baripada, Rourkela and Berhampur. The selected nine cities, including Bhubaneswar, are the beneficiaries of the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (Amrut) scheme.

Mayor Ananta Narayan Jena said that they would make efforts to improve Bhubaneswar's ranking in the survey this time. According to Jena, the first survey had given them an opportunity to identify the lacunae in the city's cleanliness drive. Therefore, it would be easier for them to fix those loopholes and win the race.

The city will mainly be evaluated on the basis of actions taken to plug the problems of open defecation, integrated solid waste management, information, education and behaviour change communication, door-to-door collection of waste, sweeping, collection and transportation, processing and disposal and provision of public, community and individual toilets.

Data collection has been segregated into three categories - compilation of data from the municipal body, direct observation and citizen feedback. The battle will be tough this time as the ministry has increased the weightage of citizen's feedback to 30 per cent from the earlier 25 per cent and reduced the civic body's response to 45 per cent from the earlier 50 per cent.

It retained the independent observation at 25 per cent.

The capital city in the first cleanliness survey conducted in January had secured 1,279 marks out of 2,000. "The city has already got the tag of being the smartest in the country, but we have always failed to impress when it comes to sanitation. The administration should learn from their earlier mistakes and try to get the cleanest tag in the upcoming survey," said Ghatikia resident Mithali Mohanty.

The Telegraph had reported about the poor progress of Swachh Bharat Mission in the city. Government data shows that the civic body managed to construct only 11.28 per cent of the total number of individual household latrines planned to be built during 2015-16. The corresponding figure for public and community toilets is a poor 1.88 per cent.

The construction of individual household latrines in slum areas and public and community toilets are two of the major components under the Swachh Bharat Mission to make urban areas free from open defecation.

"The municipal corporation has got one more chance to show its potential. It should not miss it and act accordingly to maintain its dignity of being the smartest in the country. It is the time for action for the administration," said city-based environmentalist Bimal Jena.