Mysore tops Swachh Bharat rankings while Delhi Cantonment at 15th spot

Saturday, 8 August,New Delhi: Mysore has topped the Swachh Bharat rankings among 476 cities in the country with three more places from Karnataka figuring in the top 10.

Among urban local bodies in the national capital, Delhi Cantonment was ranked 15th in the list and New Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) 16th, while Municipal Corporation of Delhi was at 398th position. West Bengal has done well in the rankings with 25 cities/towns finding a place in the top 100. These rankings are based on the extent of open defecation and solid waste management practices, according to a government release.

The city of Mysore leads the cities with minimal open defecation and extensive adoption of solid waste management practices. Thirty-nine cities from the southern states were among the top 100, followed by 27 from East, 15 from West, 12 from North and seven from the North-Eastern states.

Fifteen of the 27 capital cities surveyed figured among the top 100 performers while five were ranked beyond 300. Bengaluru leads the list of capitals at 7th rank while Patna came at the bottom at 429th. Among the bottom 100 cities, 74 are from North, 21 from East, three from West and two from South.

The top 10 ranked cities are Mysore, Tiruchirapalli (Tamil Nadu), Navi Mumbai, Kochi (Kerala), Hassan, Mandya and Bengaluru from Karnataka, Thiruvananthapuram, Halisahar (West Bengal), and Gangtok (Sikkim). Damoh (Madhya Pradesh) came at the bottom at 476th, preceded by Bhind (MP), Palwal and Bhiwani — both in Haryana, Chittaurgarh (Rajasthan), Bulandshahr (UP), Neemuch (MP), Rewari (Haryana), Hindaun (Rajasthan) and Sambalpur in Odisha at 467th rank.

All the 476 Class-1 cities in 31 States and Union Territories, each with a population of above one lakh were surveyed for assessing total sanitation practices covering a set of parameters including the extent of open defecation, solid waste management, septage management, waste water treatment, drinking water quality, surface water quality of water bodies and mortality due to water born diseases. The survey, conducted during 2014-15, was commissioned by the Ministry of Urban Development as required under the National Sanitation Policy of 2008.

Since the Swachh Bharat Mission is being implemented in urban areas with focus on construction of individual household, community and public toilets to eradicate open defecation and ensure door-to-door collection and disposal of municipal solid waste, all the 476 Class-1 cities have been ranked based on the data pertaining to these elements. This helps in assessing the present situation in these cities so that they can undertake necessary interventions to meet Swachh Bharat Mission targets in urban areas.

Overall sanitation rankings of these cities based on a total of 100 marks assigned to different parameters covering all aspects would be announced later. The Swachh Bharat rankings are based on a total of 42 marks including 20 for open defecation indicators and 22 for solid waste management indicators.

Number of cities surveyed in major states include : UP (61), West Bengal (60), Maharashtra (43), Madhya Pradesh (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), Chhattisgarh (9) and six each from Kerala, Uttarakhand and North-Eastern states.

PTI