Mysuru in Karnataka remained the cleanest city in the country while Dhanbad in Jharkhand came at the bottom of 73 major cities surveyed for sanitation scenario last month.
Results of ‘Swachh Survekshan-2016’ were released by the Minister of Urban Development M.Venkaiah Naidu at a media conference here today. Some 53 cities with a population of above ten lakh each and 22 capitals that do not have that much population were selected for the survey. NOIDA and Kolkata desired to participate in the next round of survey. The top 10 cities in terms of sanitation and hygiene in order of rank are: Mysuru, Chandigarh, Tiruchirapalli (Tamil Nadu), New Delhi Municipal Council, Visakhapatnam(Andhra Pradesh), Surat, Rajkot, both in Gujarat, Gangtok (Sikkim), Pimpri Chindwad and Greater Mumbai, both from Maharashtra. Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh), Surat and Rajkot, both form Gujarat and Gangtok (Sikkim) improved their ranks to break into top 10 clean cities in this year’s survey. The bottom 10 cities are: Kalyan Dombivili (Maharshtra-ranked 64), Varanasi, Jamshedpur (Jharkhand), Ghaziabad (UP), Raipur (Chattisgarh), Meerut (UP), Patna (Bihar), Itanagar (Arunachal Pradesh), Asansol (West Bengal) and Dhanbad, ranked 73.
The last cleanliness survey was conducted in 2014 among 476 cities with a population of one lakh and above each and results were announced last year. This survey was done before the launch of Swachh Bharat Mission by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in October last year. From the results of 2014 survey which was based on a large number of parameters, 476 cities were ranked based on their performance with regard to the components of Swachh Bharat Mission like construction of toilets, solid waste management and independent observation. The 73 cities surveyed this year were also ranked based on the marks they scored in 2014 for arriving at their ranks in 2014 for further comparison with the results of this year’s survey.
Venkaiah Naidu said the Swachh Bharat Mission made a positive impact in urban areas in terms of enhanced efforts to improve sanitation, reorientation of attitudes of urban local bodies and citizens and improvement on ground. Swachh Survekshan-2016 was thorough, professional, evidence based and participatory. Regarding methodology used for Swachh Survekshan-2016, Naidu informed that out of the total marks of 2,000 for assessing the performance of efforts of 73 cities, 60% were assigned for solid waste management related parameters, 30% for construction of toilets and 5% each for city level sanitation strategy and behavior change communication.
Quality Council of India which conducted the survey deployed 25 teams of 3 trained surveyors each to visit 42 locations in each city covering major zones like railway stations, bus stations, religious places, major market places, planned and unplanned residential areas including slums and toilet complexes. The survey teams took a total of 3,066 geo-tagged photos of places visited as evidence and they were uploaded on website today.
Naidu said that all the 73 cities were informed sufficiently in advance so as to make available documentary evidence of their efforts towards improving sanitation and for verification by survey teams. Over one lakh citizens responded with their feedback on cleanliness in respective cities making the survey of 2016 evidence based and participatory. (NSS)
Swachh Bharat Mission makes a positive impact: Venkaiah Naidu
