Secunderabad beats Hyderabad in Swachh Bharat rankings

The Central Government has placed Hyderabad on 275th place among 476 cities in the country in the Swachh Bharat rankings. Interestingly, the twin city Secunderabad fared better with 191 rank.

Three cities of Andhra Pradesh have performed better than Hyderabad in Swachh Bharat and got better ranking. Tirupati got 137th rank followed by Visakhapatnam (205) and Vijayawada (266).

According to the rankings released by Union Ministry for Urban Development on Saturday, Mysore city in Karnataka has topped the Swachh Bharat Rankings of 476 cities in the country with three more from the State figuring in the top 10. West Bengal does well with 25 cities/towns from the State finding a place in the top 100 cities. These rankings are based on the extent of open defecation and solid waste management practices in these cities. The city of Mysore leads the cities with minimal open defecation and extensive adoption of solid waste management practices.

As many as 39 cities from the Southern states are among the top 100 followed by 27 from the East, 15 from the West, 12 from the North and 7 from the North-Eastern States. A total of 15 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 429.

Among the bottom 100 cities, 74 are from the North, 21 from the East, 3 from the West and 2 from the South.

The top 10 ranked cities being : Mysore, Thiruchirapalli (Tamil Nadu), Navi Mumbai, Kochi (Kerala), Hassan, Mandya and Bengaluru from Karnataka, Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala), Halisahar (West Bengal) and Gangtok (Sikkim) in that order.

Damoh (Madhya Pradesh) came at the bottom of 476, preceded by Bhind(MP), Palwal and Bhiwani, both in Haryana, Chittaurgarh (Rajasthan), Bulandshahar (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 etc.

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 from out of the date generated in the survey. 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.

Over all 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), MP(32), Gujarat (30), AP(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. (INN)