Y.S.Rana, CHANDIGARH—Wake up call to the Chandigarh Administration. In a major embarrassment to Chandigarh, also known as City Beautiful has earlier emerged as the cleanest city of India with a rating 73.48 points followed by Mysore with 70.65 points as per study conducted by the Ministry of Urban Development in 2014, is now ranked 21st and Mysore walked away with top slot in the latest study conducted by the Ministry.
A citizen group of Mysore started a movement called “Let Us do it” campaign to convert youth energy to positive energy. Spread of awareness on what each one of them can do individually and collectively to keep Mysore clean and that has paid dividend. On the other, cities of Punjab have also not done well among performing best under Swachh Bharat. Jalandhar ranked 28.. While two other cities Ludhiana is ranked 381 and Amritsar at 430 out of 476 cities across the country. It is revealed in the latest study conducted by the Ministry of Urban Development. Notably, no Hindi-speaking State made it to top 10 best performing States.
Shimla also known as ‘Queen of Hills’ was ranked 90. Damoh (Madhya Pradesh) came at the bottom of the 476 cities, followed by Palwal and Bhiwani of Haryana. According to the study, Mysore tops Swachh Bharat rankings out of 476 cities while West Bengal does well with its 25 cities found a place in top 100 cities; 39 cities from South India ranked among the top 100 cities. The rankings are based on the extent of open defecation and solid waste management practices.
Among the top, thirty-nine cities from the Southern States are among the top 100 cities followed by 27 from the East; 15 from the West; 12 from the North and seven from the North-Eastern States. On the other among the bottom 100 cities, 74 are from the North; 21 from the East; three from the West and two from the South.
All the 476 Class-I cities in 31 States and Union Territories, each with a population of above one lakh population were surveyed for assessing total sanitation practices covering a set of parameters including the extent of open defecation; solid waste management; seepage management; waste water treatment, drinking water quality, surface water quality of water bodies and mortality due to water born diseases etc. Overall sanitation rankings of these cities based on a total of 100 marks assigned to different parameters covering all aspects would be announced later. The Swachh Bharat rankings are based on a total of 42 marks including 20 for open defecation indicators and 22 for solid waste management indicators.
The survey conducted during 2014-15 was conducted by the Ministry of Urban Development as required under the National Sanitation Policy of 2008. It helps in assessing the present situation in these cities so that these can undertake necessary interventions to meet Swachh Bharat Mission targets in urban areas across the country. Number of cities surveyed in major States include-Uttar Pradesh (61); West Bengal (60); Maharashtra (43); Madhya Pradesh (32); Gujarat (30); Andhra Pradesh (30); Tamil Nadu (29); Rajasthan (28); Bihar (27); Karnataka (26); Haryana (20); Punjab (16).
RANKINGS –Chandigarh (21st); Jalandhar (28);Shimla (90); Srinagar (152); Ludhiana (381); Jammu (427) and Amritsar (430).