Swachh Survekshan: Maharashtra named the cleanest state in India

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Maharashtra secured the top spot as the cleanest state in the country in the 'best-performing states' category, with Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh following the rankings. In the previous annual survey, Madhya Pradesh had earned the title of the cleanest state.

In the 'Swachh Survekshan Awards 2023,' Navi Mumbai in Maharashtra maintained its third position, and Sasvad received the cleanest city award among 3,970 cities with a population of less than one lakh. Lonavala secured the third position.

Indore in Madhya Pradesh claimed the title of the cleanest city in India for the seventh consecutive time, as revealed in the Central government's annual cleanliness survey results announced on Thursday. Surat shared the top rank in this survey, marking a significant achievement.

Three cities of West Bengal -- Madhyamgram (444th rank), Kalyani (445th rank) and Haora (446th rank) -- occupied the bottom rankings.

Among the bottom three in the state category includes Rajasthan, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh.

Varanasi is the cleanest 'Ganga town', followed by Prayagraj, Bijnor, Haridwar, Kannauj, Patna, Rishikesh, Kanpur, Rajmahal and Sahiganj. Among the 88 Ganga towns, Chhapra is ranked the last.

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In the category of cleanest cantonment boards, Madhya Pradesh's Mhow topped the chart while Deolali in Nashik and Ahmedabad were on other two spots.

President Droupadi Murmu gave away the awards to the winners at an event held here. Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri attended the event.

According to the data, 4,477 urban local bodies participated in the Swachh Survekshan 2023 and 12 core citizen responses were received. 92,720 municipal wards, 61 cantonment boards, 88 Ganga towns and 18,980 commercial areas participated in the survey. The government claims it to be the world's largest cleanliness survey.

Speaking at the event, Murmu said that the Swachh Survekshan conducted with wide participation is an important step towards raising the level of cleanliness.

The President said that about one-third of India's population live in urban areas, adding that cleanliness of cities and towns is essential for their health and development.

Besides Indore and Surat, the list of top 10 cleanest cities with more than one lakh population includes Navi Mumbai, Greater Visakhapatnam, Bhopal, Vijayawada, New Delhi, Tirupati, Greater Hyderabad and Pune.

In the state category, Odisha is ranked fourth, followed by Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Sikkim, Karnataka, Goa, Haryana and Bihar.

The Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry said that the clean city awards prioritise addressing legacy dumpsites, managing plastic waste, implementing the principles of 'reduce-reuse-recycle', and ensuring the safety of 'safaimitras'.

The Swachh Survekshan 2023 focused on transforming waste into valuable resources and was evaluated by a team of over 3,000 assessors. As many as 110 awards were bestowed during the ceremony. Evaluation parameters gave 51 per cent weightage to service level progress (segregated collection of waste, processing & disposal and safaimitra suraksha), 26 per cent to certification (ODF and other things) and 23 per cent to citizens' voice.

Union minister Puri said, "I am proud to say that all urban local bodies are open defecation free in India because swachhata has become a people's movement."

According to the ministry, the primary goal of Swachh Survekshan is to encourage large scale citizen participation and create awareness among all sections of society about the importance of working together towards making towns and cities better places to live in. (With inputs from PTI)