The Union Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) released the rankings of the ‘Swachh Survekshan-2016’ survey, ranking cities on the basis of cleanliness. A total of 73 cities were surveyed, 53 of those with a population of over 10 lakh and the 22 other state capitals with not so much population. Mysuru from Karnataka topped the rankings followed by Chandigarh and Tiruchirapalli. Half of the top 20 cleanest cities in this survey belonged to Maharashtra & Gujarat. Noida & Kolkata were not part of this survey.
The Survey Methodology
Each city was evaluated for a total of 2,000 marks out of which 60% were assigned for solid waste management related parameters, 30% for construction of toilets and 5% each for city level sanitation strategy and behavior change communication.
Quality Council of India conducted the survey and the survey team visited 42 locations in each city covering areas like railway stations, bus stations, religious places, major market places, planned and unplanned residential areas including slums and toilet complexes.
15 of the 73 cities which scored more than 70% of the total marks were categorised as Leaders and 20 cities with scores in the range of 60%-70% as Aspiring Leaders. Those with scores in the range of 50%-60% are the cities that need to accelerate their efforts and cities who scored below 50% are named Slow Movers, who need to work harder to improve Sanitation.
Number of Cities from Various States
Out of the 73 cities surveyed, 10 of them are Maharashtra, 7 from Uttar Pradesh, 5 from Gujarat and 4 each from Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh & Delhi. All the four municipal corporations in Delhi were considered as separate cities for the survey. Out of the large states, only 2 cities were from West Bengal, 1 city was from Bihar.
15 Cities Scored More Than 70%
Out of the 73 cities, 15 scored more than 70% marks, 20 scored between 60% and 70%, 18 of them scored between 50% and 60% and the remaining 20 cities scored less than 50% marks.
Both Gujarat & Maharashtra had two cities each in the top 10 while both the states accounted for 50% of the cities in the top 20. Delhi’s NDMC is at the fourth spot and Visakhapatnam from Andhra Pradesh occupied the 5th spot. Surat & Rajkot from Gujarat were at the 6th and 7th spot while Gangtok from Sikkim occupied the 8th spot. Pimpri-Chinchwad occupied the 9th spot followed by Greater Mumbai at the 10thspot. The last two spots were occupied by Asansol in West Bengal & Dhanbad in Jharkhand. Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, represented by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Lok Sabha was in the bottom 10.
The Movers
Out of the 73 cities surveyed, 32 have improved ranks since the last survey in 2014 including 17 from the North, 6 from the West, 5 from the South and 2 each from the East and North-East. The Union Minister for Urban Development, Venkaiah Naidu said that is a clear evidence of enhanced efforts being made by the northern cities towards sanitation and new cities challenging the domination of cities from the South and the West among top clean cities.
Of these 32 cities that improved their rankings, 10 cities increased their ranking by more than 20 positions. Some of the top movers are Allahabad (improved by 45 ranks), Nagpur (40), Visakhapatnam (39), Gwalior (34), Bhubaneswar(32), Hyderabad(31), Gurgaon(29), Vijayawada(23) and Lucknow (23).
Top 10 cities who moved down in ranks in 2016 i.e top 10 bottom movers are: Jamshedpur, Kochi, Shillong, Chennai, Guwahati, Asansol, Bengaluru, Ranchi, Kalyan Dombivili and Nashik. While Jamshedpur moved down this year by 53 ranks, Nashik slipped by 23 ranks.
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