Mysuru retains cleanest tag; Varanasi among 10 dirtiest

Mysuru has emerged the cleanest city for the second time in a row in the country, followed by Chandigarh,  in the sanitation survey Swachh Survekshan 2016 conducted under the Swachh Bharat Mission.

The survey, commissioned by Ministry of Urban Development, also revealed that Dhanbad in Jharkhand and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's constituency, Varanasi, are among the 10 dirtiest cities in India.

Bengaluru, which stood 11th in 2014 survey, slipped to 38th rank in the latest survey, while Hubballi-Dharwad, which bagged 33th rank in 2014, plummeted to 54th rank. Reasons for lower ranking are other cities performed better in maintaining cleanliness than these two cities, said an official from the Urban Development ministry.

The survey put Tiruchirapalli in third spot, while New Delhi Municipal Council ranked fourth among top 10 clean cities.

Interestingly, Mysuru also ranked first in the last survey conducted in 2014 covering 476 cities, which was commissioned by the central government under the National Sanitation Policy-2008.  

The urban development ministry had in October last year commissioned a survey of sanitation scenario under Swachh Bharat Mission in 73 major cities, including 53 with a population of above 10 lakh each and state capitals, Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said, releasing the list.
This is the first such survey since the launch of Swachh Bharat Mission in October 2014 and it was carried out by Quality Council of India.

In the survey, solid waste management is being given 60 per cent weightage, followed by 15 per cent each for availability and use of household individual toilets, public and community toilets, besides 5 per cent each for city level sanitation plans and Information, Education and Behaviour Change Communication (IEBC) activities.

Other cities which have found a place in the 10 cleanest category include Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh), Surat and Rajkot (Gujarat), Gangtok (Sikkim), Pimpri-Chindwad (Maharashtra) and Greater Mumbai.

The least clean cities include Asansol (West Bengal), Itanagar (Arunachal Pradesh), Patna (Bihar), Meerut and Ghaziabad (Uttar Pradesh), Raipur (Chhattisgarh), Jamshedpur (Jharkhand) and Kalyan Dombivili (Maharashtra).

Cities in the South and West continue to do well overall but those in other parts of the country, particularly North, are beginning to catch up with the traditional leaders, Naidu said. "This (ranking) is meant to help the cities know where they stand in absolute terms and in relation to others, besides what more needs to be done by each city to ensure sanitation,” the minister added.