Indore was on Saturday ranked the cleanest city for the fifth consecutive year by the Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry in its annual cleanliness ranking.
The Swachh Survekshan Awards 2021 handed out by President Ram Nath Kovind included the cleanest State honour for Chhattisgarh for the third time, in the category of States with more than 100 urban local bodies. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s constituency, Varanasi, won the award for the cleanest “Ganga city”.
Mass movement: Minister
In his speech, Mr. Kovind said sanitation workers had worked throughout the pandemic. He said the Government was committed to the safety of workers. Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Puri said the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan had become a mass movement.
Among cities, Surat and Vijayawada secured second and third place respectively. The MoHUA said the survey was carried out in 4,320 cities over 28 days, where feedback from 4.2 crore people was recorded.
Of States with over 100 urban local bodies, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh were ranked second and third respectively. Jharkhand was judged the cleanest State with less than 100 ULBs, followed by Haryana and Goa.
Among cities with population over 1 lakh, Indore, Surat, Vijayawada, Navi Mumbai, New Delhi, Ambikapur, Tirupati, Pune, Noida and Ujjain were the top 10, in that order. Lucknow stood at 25 out of such cities.
Of cities with population less than 1 lakh, Maharashtra’s Vita was the cleanest, followed by Lonavala and Sasvad.
The New Delhi Municipal Council’s area was ranked the cleanest in the category of cities with 1-3 lakh population. Noida was named the cleanest among medium-sized cities, that is with 3 lakh to 10 lakh population. Among the big cities with population of 10 lakh to 40 lakh, Navi Mumbai was ranked the cleanest.
