Union ministry of housing and urban affairs Manohar Lal Khattar on Saturday inaugurated the Swachh Shehar Jodi (SSJ) programme, a mentorship and collaborative action programme intended to enable knowledge transfer, peer learning, and replication of best practices in waste management and urban cleanliness.
Under this programme, which comes under the Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban (SBM-U) mission, 72 top-performing “mentor” cities — identified based on their Swachh Survekshan rankings — have been paired with approximately 200 lower-ranked “mentee” cities.
“The programme is a non-ceremonial, outcome-driven initiative ensuring that no city is left behind in sanitation metrics,” Khattar said at the launch event in Sonipat, Haryana. The event saw simultaneous signing of Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) between mentor and mentee cities nationwide. Haryana chief minister Nayab Singh Saini, state urban development ministers, mayors, and municipal commissioners were among the dignitaries present. As of Saturday, 21 states and 57 cities have signed up as mentor cities to guide a total of 163 mentee cities.
Among them are Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh which will guide Chintalapudi, Akiveedu, and Narasapur, among others. In Gujarat, Ahmedabad will mentor Sanand and Wankaner, while Surat will support Mandvi and Palitana. Bhubaneswar in Odisha will mentor Kendrapara and Debagarh, and Chandigarh will serve as a mentor to Panchkula.
The framework for the initiative was laid out on August 26 when MoHUA issued guidelines formalising the pairing of mentor and mentee cities. As part of a 100-day pilot phase, each city pair will jointly prepare action plans with clearly defined milestones to address urban waste management challenges. The efficacy of the program will be monitored and later evaluated in the Swachh Survekshan 2026 rankings, officials aware of the details said.
The programme has eight focus areas, including visible cleanliness, waste segregation and transport, scientific processing of waste, access to sanitation, used water management, mechanised desludging, citizen advocacy, and grievance redressal.
