Bhubaneswar: The not-so-good performance of the state capital in the recently-concluded Swachh Survekshan 2018 has given a wake up-call to the municipal corporation that is gearing up to change the sanitation scenario of the city.

The civic authorities have decided to take up an array of activities to retain a clean environment in Bhubaneswar beginning with introduction of the ambitious mechanical sweeping of main arterial roads. Besides, it has been decided to repair the broken bins and install new ones where needed.

Sources said the plans to change the sanitation scenario of Bhubaneswar came afoot after several councillors during the monthly council meeting of May raised concerns over the under performance of the city at the national-level cleanliness survey. The councillors blamed the sanitary agencies for the situation.

"We did quite well in the previous surveys but couldn't continue the performance this time. It is humiliating since we are tagged the smartest city of the country and the leader of east zone in cleanliness once. We have suggested measures to maintain the cleanliness and will do our level best to attain it," said a councillor.

Among several decisions made to ensure cleanliness is a regular review and follow-up with the agencies engaged in managing sanitation of the city.

It has been finalised to develop a proposal for assigning three or four wards to smaller agencies for expediting sanitation work smoothly.

The ward officers and sanitary inspectors have been entrusted to ensure that the cleaning is done regularly at their respective areas. The city health officer will visit several wards periodically to take stock of the waste bins and submit a report on their repair and installation.

The civic body has also decided to strengthen its sanitation cell. To begin with, two new officers will be hired to check the sanitation-related work. An officer on special duty, specifically a retired administrative officer of the state government, will be engaged to look after the sanitation as well as legal matters of the civic body.

"We didn't do well in the Swachh Survekhan due to several loopholes including failure in getting the open defecation-free status. We did increase the number of toilets and asked people to use it, but they continue to violate the norms. We are not going to tolerate such things now," said mayor Ananta Narayan Jena.

The results of the Swachh Survekshan 2018 was declared on May 16, but Bhubaneswar was not included in any award category. The city is still unaware of its actual rank in the survey. However, in the Swachh City dashboard of the Centre, the city now ranks a lowly 260.