Bhubaneswar: The Union urban development ministry has asked the civic body to merge its My City My Pride mobile application with the Centre's Swachhata App for a closer look on the city's sanitation activities.

Once the merger is completed, residents will be able to air their grievances regarding civic issues - sanitation, road conditions, defunct streetlights - using the application. However, now the redress system will be monitored by the Centre itself.

The plan is to have a close eye on the civic body's efficiency in resolving citizen grievances. This will also help the ministry and its partners to judge the civic body's performance in the forthcoming Swachh Survekshan survey. If the civic body fails to merge the apps, they stand to lose marks in the survey.

"We received the Centre's direction and forwarded it to the civic body and asked them to comply. The Centre will assist it in the integration. The developer of the local app will coordinate with the ministry," said a housing and urban development department official.

Mayor Ananta Narayan Jena said they did well in the last two Swachh Survekshan surveys and will continue to keep the momentum this time too. "We already receive complaints through our local app and efficiently resolve them. We will continue to do the same and serve the people," said the mayor.

In 2015, the civic body introduced the application to instantly receive complaints from citizens. In 2016, they launched a website by the same name. The Swachhata App was also introduced by the Centre in 2014 to serve a similar purpose.