Bhopal’s absence from the latest Swachh Survekshan rankings has triggered a protest by Congress corporators outside the Bhopal Municipal Corporation headquarters, with the demonstration focusing on alleged sanitation gaps and the reported accumulation of legacy waste at the Adampur landfill site.
The protest was led by former Congress district president Pradeep ‘Monu’ Saxena on Thursday. The demonstrators brought a bouquet of flowers and plants locally known as ‘besharam’ for mayor Malti Rai, but were stopped from entering the civic body’s premises after police closed the corporation’s main gates. The bouquet was subsequently hung on the main gate, while protesters raised slogans against the municipal corporation’s sanitation management.
The demonstration lasted about an hour. Congress corporators questioned how Bhopal could miss a position in the latest rankings after recording a strong performance in the previous assessment. The city had ranked second among cities with a population of more than one million in Swachh Survekshan 2024, scoring 12,067 points, according to the report.
Bhopal had also received a seven-star rating under the Garbage-Free City category and a Water Plus certification. These distinctions had positioned the city as one of the stronger performers in national cleanliness assessments. The latest setback has therefore brought renewed attention to how sanitation performance is measured and how effectively civic claims reflect conditions at waste-processing and disposal sites.
Saxena alleged that the city’s sanitation infrastructure had been affected by the condition of legacy waste at the Adampur landfill. The protesters claimed that nearly five lakh tonnes of legacy waste remained at the Adampur Chhawani site and questioned the gap between the Bhopal Municipal Corporation’s reported achievements and conditions on the ground. The report did not include a response from the civic body to the allegations.
The concerns have also revived scrutiny of Bhopal’s earlier waste-remediation efforts. The clearance of legacy waste at Bhanpur had been regarded as a significant step in improving the city’s cleanliness performance. The latest allegations suggest that unresolved waste at other sites remains a central challenge for the city’s sanitation system.
The protesters also questioned the effectiveness of Bhopal’s sanitation arrangements despite the deployment of about 14,000 sanitation workers. Their objections centre on whether manpower deployment is translating into sustained waste management outcomes across collection, processing, landfill remediation and disposal. The report did not provide details of the municipal corporation’s current legacy-waste clearance plan or the timeline for addressing the Adampur site.
