The Swachh Survekshan 2017 report released on Thursday put Indore as the cleanest city among the 434 surveyed for cleanliness. While Gujarat has topped the list of states with the maximum number of cleanest cities (12 cities), Madhya Pradesh was a close second (11 cities) followed by Andhra Pradesh in the third position (8 cities). The states with the lowest rankings included Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Bihar. Of the ten least clean places, five are in Uttar Pradesh.
While the cleanest city of 2016, Mysuru slipped to fifth position this year, Chandigarh, the runner-up last year, saw an even bigger fall to eleventh position. Among the dirtiest cities, Dhanbad in Jharkhand has shown improvement while the second dirtiest city in 2016, Asansol in West Bengal did not participate in the survey this year. West Bengal reportedly refused to participate in the survey since it had launched it’s own Mission Nirmal Bangla to make the state open-defecation free.
Speaking at the Swachh Survekshan Awards 2017, Union minister M Venkaiah Naidu said, “The whole purpose of Swachh Survekshan 2017 is to let cities know where they stand for future improvement. I’m more than happy with Madhya Pradesh, which was once a ‘Bimaru’ state.”
Here are the top ten cities on the basis of cleanliness rankings in the Swachh Survekshan 2017 report:
1. Indore, Madhya Pradesh
2. Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh
3. Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh
4. Surat, Gujarat
5. Mysuru, Karnataka
6. Tiruchapally, Tamil Nadu
7. NDMC, National Capital Territory of Delhi
8. Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra
9. Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh
10. Vadodara, Gujarat
Here are the 10 cities with the worst ranking in the report:
1. Gonda, Uttar Pradesh
2. Bhusawal, Maharashtra
3. Bagaha, Bihar
4. Hardoi, Uttar Pradesh
5. Katihar, Bihar
6. Bahraich, Uttar Pradesh
7. Muktsar, Punjab
8. Abohar, Punjab
9. Shahjahanpur, Uttar Pradesh
10. Khurja, Uttar Pradesh
In the second edition of the survey after the launch of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in 2014, around 500 cities and towns were to be inspected. However, only 434 were inspected and ranked on standards of urban sanitation, public toilets, solid waste management including road sweeping and segregation at the source of waste collection. Over four hundred assessors from Quality Council of India personally inspected 17,500 locations while on-the-spot assessments for ground level sanitation status were also carried out.
Feedback from over 3.7 million citizens were taken on six parameters of cleanliness in survey carried out in January-February by the Ministry of Urban Development. Before announcing the results, the Ministry had stated on May 2 that 83 per cent of the respondents considered that their localities have seen progress in terms of cleanliness over the last year.
With Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, India aims to be a country free from open-defecation by October 2,2019, marking the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. Earlier in April, Rajiv Gauba, secretary of the Ministry of Urban Development had announced that 531 cities in India were certified as Open Defecation Free under Swachh Bharat mission.