Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC) has rated its cleanliness service three stars in an internal assessment ahead of Swachh Survekshan in January.

The civic body defended the three-star rating by claiming that garbage was collected every day from 90 per cent of the houses in 53 wards under the corporation.

However, a survey by The Telegraph revealed that the rating was not justified.

Garbage dumps along roads and in street corners pointed out that the civic body had a lot to improve as far as cleanliness was concerned.

Sanjay Minz, a resident of Pipartoli under Ward 35, said garbage was not collected from his locality regularly despite several requests.

“We have to dump trash in open fields and isolated places,” Minz said.

Abhay Kumar, a resident of Ganga Nagar in Ward 34, supported Minz.

“Garbage collection vehicles come to my house after a gap of 5-15 days. Trash keeps piling up in our homes because our locality is congested and there are no open space to dispose of the waste,” Kumar said.

A resident of Peace Road under Ward 10, Avinash Jaiswal, said trash strewn on the road was a common sight at Sadbhavna Nagar.

“People dump garbage on vacant plots of land from where RMC collects it once in two months,” Jaiswal said.

Municipal commissioner Manoj Kumar said the rating was an internal assessment to prepare for the pan-India cleanliness survey expected in January next year.

“I have asked people to send their suggestions to improve the system,” he said.

On how the civic body came to the conclusion that garbage was collected from 90 per cent of the houses, Kumar said: “The total weight of the garbage helped us form an estimate. A survey on whether the trash is collected from garbage points or from houses will help us arrive at a more specific figure.”

Health officer Dr Kiran Kumari said she had not received any formal objection regarding the rating.