Union housing and concrete affairs (MoHUA) minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Saturday launched the Swachh Shehar Jodi (SSJ) programme below the Swachh Bharat Mission-City (SBM-U), describing it as a “non-ceremonial, outcome-driven initiative making certain that no metropolis is left behind in sanitation metrics”.
The launch occasion in Sonipat witnessed the simultaneous signing of memorandums of understanding (MoUs) between mentor and mentee cities nationwide. As of Saturday, 21 states and 57 mentor cities have joined to information a complete of 163 mentee cities.
Among the many pairings, Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh will information Chintalapudi, Akiveedu, and Narasapur, whereas in Gujarat, Ahmedabad mentors Sanand and Wankaner, and Surat helps Mandvi and Palitana. In Odisha, Bhubaneswar mentors Kendrapara and Debagarh, and Chandigarh serves as mentor to Panchkula.
SSJ is a structured mentorship and collaborative motion programme designed to allow information switch, peer studying, and replication of finest practices in waste administration and concrete cleanliness, the federal government stated in a press release. Seventy-two top-performing mentor cities, recognized on the premise of their Swachh Survekshan rankings, have been paired with about 200 lower-ranked mentee cities.
MoHUA had laid the framework for the initiative on 26 August 2025, issuing pointers formalising the mentor-mentee pairings. Below a 100-day pilot part, every pair will collectively put together motion plans with particular milestones to handle city waste administration challenges. The programme’s effectiveness shall be monitored and evaluated in the course of the Swachh Survekshan 2026 rankings, officers stated.
The SSJ programme will concentrate on eight key areas: seen cleanliness, waste segregation and transport, scientific processing of waste, entry to sanitation, used water administration, mechanised desludging, citizen advocacy, and grievance redressal.
