Improving its performance compared to the last time, Uttarakhand managed to secure three awards at the national level in the Swachchh Survekshan 2020. The State has been ranked third best performing state in the category of states with less than 100 urban local bodies. Nandprayag Nagar Panchayat has secured the first position in the citizen feedback category among local bodies with less than one lakh population. The Almora cantonment area has been ranked third in the citizen feedback category. The results of the Swachchh Survekshan 2020 were released by Union minister Hardeep Puri in a virtual function on Thursday.
Congratulating the local bodies which secured awards in the Swachchh Survekshan 2020, the chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat said that there is still scope for considerable improvement when it comes to sanitation. Noting that there has been noticeable improvement in the ranking of cities and locl bodies in the survey, he stressed on the need for better performance. Rawat said that the special focus needs to be laid on sanitation to take forward the Swachchh Bharat mission launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Proper level of sanitation also protects people from various diseases, he added.
The Urban Development and Housing minister Madan Kaushik said that under the CM, the state government is working with considerable seriousness in the urban areas. The state is making consistent efforts to further empower the urban local bodies and develop new sources for their revenue generation. Kaushik said that the local bodies have been told to work while according top priority to sanitation. Clear instructions have also been issued to first make available the grants under the 14th and 15th finance commissions to local bodies for sanitation works. This has directly affected the state’s performance in the Swachchh Survekshan, added the minister.
The national level sanitation survey saw the participation of 4,242 cities and 62 cantonment boards. In the category of cities with more than one lakh population, Uttarakhand managed to peform considerably better. In the 2019 Swachchh Survekshan Dehradun was ranked 384, Roorkee was 281, Kashipur was 304, Haldwani 350, Haridwar 376 and Rudrapur was 403. This year, there was considerable improvement in rankings with Dehradun securing 124th rank, Roorkee 131, Kashipur 139, Haldwani 229, Haridwar 244 and Rudrapur 316. In the category of cities with more than 50,000 but less than one lakh population, Ramnagar secured 18th rank in the north zone cities, Jaspur 56 and Pithoragarh 58. Among cities with 25,000 to 50,000 population, Nainital has been ranked 68th and Sitarganj 106. In towns with less than 25,000 population Muni ki Reti secured 12th rank, Ukhimath 41, Bhimtal 50 and Narendranagar 58. Out of the 92 local bodies on the banks of the Ganga, Gauchar secured third rank, Joshimath fourth, Rudraprayag fifth, Srinagar sixth, Gopeshwar eighth, Muni ki Reti 11th, Badkot 12th, Karnprayag 13th, Kirtinagar 18th, Devprayag 20th, Nandprayag 22nd and Tehri 28th position.