Bhubaneswar, Sept. 14: The hype around the “Clean Bhubaneswar” campaign notwithstanding, Orissa’s capital has failed to make the grade as far as Union urban development ministry’s rating of cities based on sanitation standards is concerned.

The ratings put Bhubaneswar in the same low bracket along with much smaller towns such as Baripada and Rourkela municipal areas. At a score of 53.4, the Rourkela Industrial Township has received the highest rating in the state, while Sambalpur lies at the bottom with a score of 31.

As a part of the City Sanitation Rating Project of the National Urban Sanitation Policy (NUSP), ratings are awarded to 423 cities with respect to their performances in improving sanitation. The ratings are based on a set of objective indicators such as access and use of toilets, solid waste generation and treatment, surface drainage system, quality of drinking water and measures to control water-borne diseases.

Category-wise, cities get colour codes such as red (less than 33 points), black (between 34 and 66), blue (between 67 and 90) and green (between 91 and 100) indicating levels such as endangered, need improvement, recovering and healthy cities.

In Orissa, the good performers include Rourkela Industrial Township with 53.4 points, Cuttack with 41.72, Balasore with 41.35, Puri with 40.58, and Berhampur with 39.72. But all these, as their categories mention, “need improvement”.

While Bhubaneswar scored 38.97, Baripada got 38.70, Rourkela and Sambalpur got 38.59 and 31 respectively. The situation in Sambalpur reflected the recent tussle between the local municipality and the district administration on the issue of lifting of solid waste.

The ratings of the cities as per the NUSP guidelines are, however, subjected to revision from time to time. More stringent conditions, such as no-urination or spitting in open/public space, are likely to be introduced as indicators. The specific indicators on the scoring patterns would also be revised from time to time.

A notification of the Union ministry indicated that even big cities might have to institute good practice systems that comply with International Standards Organisation (ISO) process systems. It also added that if any city got healthy/green city status, their respective civic authorities would be eligible for national awards.

Prof. Saswat Bandopadhyay, programme head, environmental planning, Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology University, Ahmedabadsaid: “Not only Orissa, but many prominent cities of prosperous states have also scored miserably as they lack focus on sanitation. Even point-wise, Chandigarh has scored low as compared to what is expected from it. Likewise in Orissa, Bhubaneswar has been placed in the same league with district headquarters town like Baripada, so there is a lot more to be done on the sanitation front.’’

Piyush Ranjan Rout, co-founder of Local Governance Network, said: “Apart from sanitation guidelines, safety of water bodies in urban areas should also be taken into account. The Berhampur Municipal Corporation has done some remarkable job in this regard and other cities of the state should follow it.’’

The joint secretary of Orissa housing and urban development department, Sanjib Kumar Mishra, however, clarified that the state government had already started a city sanitation plan in eight cities and towns across the state. Two national-level agencies under the guidance of National Institute Urban Affairs were engaged in consultation, condition assessment surveys, and situation and data analysis. The agencies were going to present their progress report and vision plan to Orissa’s housing and urban development minister.

“Out of a total of 103 civic authorities in Orissa, 45 are already covered under the e-municipality programme. The city sanitation plan will be extended later for the rest 58 civic authorities. The state government has also created a document titled “Survey for City Sanitation’’ and aims to free the civic authorities from open defecation by 2017,’’ said a senior official of housing and urban development department.

That the state was taking some corrective measures was also reflected in Bandopadhyay’s assertion. He said: “Orissa has already started working on the state-level sanitation strategy and city sanitation plan for selected cities on an experimental basis and it is hoped that the overall score will go up during subsequent studies through logical follow-up action by the respective urban local bodies.”