The tall claims of the Haryana Government for successfully implementing ‘Swachchh Haryana, Swachchh Bharat’ campaign has fallen flat.
Haryana’s Millennium cities — Gurgaon and industrial hub Faridabad — has failed to impress in terms of cleanliness and have been ranked low in the Swachchh Survekshan survey unveiled by Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu on Monday in New Delhi.
While Haryana’s Capital Chandigarh has been ranked as second cleanest city, Gurgaon is ranked at 36th position and Faridabad at 51st position in the survey which was conducted in 73 cities of the country.
Gurgaon and Faridabad’s low rankings points out weak strategy for stopping open defecation, implementing solid waste management, ensuring sanitation in public and community toilet provisions and waste management processing and disposal.
Mysuru topped the rankings of India’s 10 cleanest cities in the survey.
The Union Government on Monday also awarded Swachchh City Award to Municipal Corporation Chandigarh for achieving 2nd rank and being best performing city in north zone and citizen feedback category during the Swachchh Survekshan conducted in January 2016 under the Swachh Bharat Mission by Ministry of Urban Development.
Himachal’s Capital city Shimla has been ranked at 27th while neighboring Punjab’s ludhiana city attainted 34th rank and holy city Amritsar 49th rank.
The rankings are aimed at giving a push to the Swachh Bharat Mission. They are based on the ‘Swachchh Survekshan’ survey conducted by the Quality Council of India, which is associated with the Urban Development Ministry.
The survey was conducted in 73 cities with a population of over 1 million, and based on parameters laid down by Swachh Bharat such as access to sanitation facilities, strategy to tackle open defecation and solid waste management.
Notably, in line with Centre’s project ‘Swachchh Bharat Abhiyan’, Haryana Government had launched ‘Swachchh Haryana, Swachchh Bharat’ campaign.
A similar survey released last year had placed Gurgaon at a shameful 466th out of 476, which was at the bottom of the Swachchh Bharat Abhiyan rankings of the cleanest (and dirtiest) towns and cities in India. Surprisingly Faridabad had at that time performed better than Gurgaon and secured a rank of 421.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched ‘Swachchh Bharat Abhiyan’ in 2014 and laid a roadmap for improving the level of sanitation and cleanliness in the country with a vision to create a Clean India by 2019, the 150th birth year of Mahatma Gandhi.