B'luru cleanest capital in India

Bengaluru has emerged as the cleanest capital in the country and Mysuru the cleanest city, according to the Centre’s Swachh Bharat rankings, released on Saturday, in which south Indian towns came out with flying colours.

The rankings were based on a survey which considered the prevalence and extent of open defecation and solid waste management (SWM) practices in 476 cities. Mysuru led with minimal open defecation and extensive adoption of SWM practices.

If one took the capital cities alone, Bengaluru ranked first followed by Thiruvananthapuram, Gangtok, Delhi and Chandigarh. Bengaluru’s overall ranking was seventh, Thiruvananthapuram (8), Gangtok (10), Delhi (16) and Chandigarh (21).

Fifteen of the 27 capital cities surveyed figured among the top-100 performers while five were ranked beyond 300. Patna, the capital of Bihar, came at the bottom, at 429. Among the metro cities, Kolkata came at 56, Chennai (61) and Mumbai (140).

On dealing with open defecation, Bengaluru scored the highest of 13.81 among capitals while Thiruvananthapuram got 13.38. On waste management, Gangtok got the highest marks among capitals with 12.65 while Thiruvananthapuram got 12.64 and Bengaluru 12.29.

In the overall rankings, four Karnataka cities — Mysuru, Hassan, Mandya and Bengaluru — found space in top ten. Hassan was ranked fifth, Mandya sixth and Bengaluru seventh.

Only three cities outside south India found themselves in top ten. Tiruchirappalli came second followed by Navi Mumbai and Kochi at fifth. Halisahar (West Bengal) was ninth and Mangaluru came 11th.

Mysuru scored the highest 18.50 out of 20 marks in minimising open defecation, while Tiruchirappalli could score only 14.38. On sewage waste management, too, Mysuru had an impressive score of 15.75 but Tiruchirappalli had a better score. Overall, West Bengal did well with 25 cities in top 100 while 39 cities from the South also found place in top 100.

Dirty picture
Painting a grim picture of cleanliness in north Indian cities, the survey showed that only 12 cities found place in top 100 while 74 found place in bottom 100.

The survey conducted during 2014-15 was commissioned by the Ministry of Urban Development as required under the National Sanitation Policy of 2008. All the 476 Class-1 cities in 31 States and Union Territories, each with a population of above 1 lakh, were surveyed for assessing total sanitation practices.

“This helps in assessing the present situation in these cities so that they can undertake necessary interventions to meet Swachh Bharat Mission targets in the urban areas,” a senior official said.

A number of cities were surveyed in major states. These included UP (61), West Bengal (60), Maharashtra (43), MP (32), Gujarat (30), Andhra Pradesh (30), Tamil Nadu (29), Rajasthan (28), Bihar (27), Karnataka (26), Haryana (20), Punjab (16), Telangana (11), Odisha (10), Jharkhand (10), Chattisgarh (9) and 6 each from Kerala, Uttarakhand and North-Eastern states.