Lucknow Municipal Corporation has been selected under the Centre’s PRAGATI 50 initiative for focused monitoring and improvement of sanitation, waste management and citizen services, placing the city among six urban local bodies in Uttar Pradesh covered under the programme.
The initiative was discussed during a video conference chaired by Union housing and urban affairs minister Manohar Lal on Tuesday. Mayor Sushma Kharkwal, municipal commissioner Gaurav Kumar, senior civic officials and corporators attended the meeting.
Agra, Ayodhya, Mathura-Vrindavan, Prayagraj and Varanasi are the other Uttar Pradesh urban local bodies selected under PRAGATI 50. The programme has been launched under the Centre’s Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban 2.0 and is intended to provide focused monitoring and technical support to the selected civic bodies.
The review will cover areas including solid waste management, wastewater management, public sanitation and citizen engagement. Uttar Pradesh urban development minister AK Sharma directed the selected urban local bodies to conduct regular reviews of progress and work towards meeting the programme’s targets within stipulated timelines.
Sharma said the civic bodies would receive technical support and focused monitoring to improve urban services. The announcement places the municipal corporations and urban local bodies responsible for converting the programme’s monitoring framework into regular operational reviews on the ground.
State Mission Director and urban development secretary Anuj Kumar Jha stressed the need for effective implementation of standard operating procedures and key performance indicators under Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban 2.0. These mechanisms will be used to track progress in the selected service areas, according to the report.
For Lucknow, the municipal focus will include source segregation, waste management, sanitation monitoring and citizen participation. Mayor Sushma Kharkwal said the initiative would help strengthen each of these areas. The emphasis on source segregation is linked to the point at which waste is separated before collection and disposal, while the wider programme also covers monitoring of sanitation services and public engagement.
Municipal commissioner Gaurav Kumar said the civic body would focus on regular monitoring, scientific waste disposal and timely achievement of targets. The statement does not specify the individual targets, implementation milestones or additional resources allocated to Lucknow under the initiative.
The selection gives Lucknow a formal monitoring framework for municipal services alongside five other major urban local bodies in the state. Its immediate administrative task will be to apply the prescribed standard operating procedures and performance indicators across sanitation and waste-related operations while reviewing progress at regular intervals.
The next steps are the continued review of solid waste management, wastewater management, public sanitation and citizen engagement under the PRAGATI 50 framework, with the selected civic bodies expected to work towards their stipulated targets.