Jamshedpur and Indore have emerged as the cleanest cities with a population upto 10 lakh and upto 20 lakh respectively in India even as the National Capital Region (NCR) has outdone capital city Delhi in cleanliness. The findings over a period of two quarters (six months) are part of the Modi Government’s flagship programme Swachh Survekshan League 2020.
According to the findings, Indore was adjudged India's cleanest city for the fourth time in a row. Bhopal stood second in first quarter results (April to June), while Rajkot grabbed the second spot in second quarter results (July-September). The third position in the cleanliness survey was bagged by Surat in the first quarter and Navi Mumbai in the second quarter. In the previous cleanliness survey, the second and third spots went to Ambikapur in Chhattisgarh and Mysore in Karnataka. These cities did well among those with a population of 10 lakh and above.
Indore has retained the title of the cleanest city in the last three years. This time a total of 4,372 cities participated in the league. SS League 2020 is conducted in three quarters (April-June, July-September and October-December) with the objective of sustaining the on-ground performance of cities along with monitoring of when it comes to cleanliness.
Jamshedpur in Jharkhand was adjudged the cleanest city among those with a population less than 10 lakh in both the quarters. The New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) area in Delhi, which houses VIPs, was in the second spot in the first quarter now slipped to fifth spot in the second quarter. Madhya Pradesh's Khargone was ranked third in both the quarters. In the second quarter, Chandarpur in Maharashtra grabbed the second spot. Moga in Punjab, meanwhile, topped the list in terms of rural cleanliness. Among the Cantonment Boards, Tamil Nadu's St.Thomas Mount Cantt was ranked 1 in Q1 followed by Jhansi Cantt and Delhi Cantt. On the other hand, in Q2, Delhi Cantt spotted the first spot while Jhansi cantt and Jalandhar Cantt stood at second and third spot. West Bengal has also agreed to participate in the Swachh Survekshan ranking list.
As per the findings, NDMC, three Municipal Corporations-East, South and North and Delhi Cantonment were certified as Open Defecation Free. Blaming Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for being “solely responsible” for Delhi's “poor” ranking in the Centre's cleanliness survey, Puri said that other areas in the NCR were doing better than Delhi in cleanliness.
The findings say that East MCD was ranked 284; South MCD 394 and North MCD at 328 in the first quarter while south MCD was ranked at 205 in the second quarter. Puri added that neither MCD commissioners nor Delhi Mayor should be held responsible for poor show.
Releasing the findings of SS League 2020, Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said that the focus has always been on ensuring the sustainability of the sanitation value chain as is evident in the SS League 2020 parameters where wastewater treatment and reuse, and faecal sludge management have been given special attention. “The Open Defecation Free+, ODF++ and Water plus protocols by the ministry work as the guiding document for cities in this regard,” he said. The fourth edition covered 4237 cities in a record time of 28 days and was a fully digitized paperless survey.