New Delhi: Madhya Pradesh’s Indore has been declared as India’s Cleanest City for the fifth time in a row under the Centre’s Swachh Survekshan 2021 award this morning. President Ram Nath Kovid presented Swachh Survekshan Awards-2021 as part of ‘Swachh Amrit Mahotsav’ to the cleanest cities and States at Vigyan Bhawan in the national capital.
Surat (Gujarat) and Vijayawada (Andhra Pradesh) grabbed the second and third positions respectively. Among Indian States, Chhattisgarh has bagged the top position as the country’s Cleanest State and Varanasi got the first position in the Cleanest Ganga Town category.
Mysuru city that was hoping for a place in the top three cleanest cities has, however, been awarded five-star ranking in ‘garbage-free cities’ category.
Urban Development Minister Byrathi Basavaraj, Mysuru Mayor Sunanda Palanetra, Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) Commissioner G. Lakshmikanth Reddy and Senior Health Officer Dr. D.G. Nagaraj received the award from Hardeep Singh Puri, Union Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs.
Mysuru was among eight cities in Karnataka which have qualified for a rank under different categories with others being Bruhat Bengaluru, K.R. Nagar, Periyapatna, Hubbali-Dharwad, Mudhol, Hosadurga and Kumta.
The other cities that have got five-star rating under the garbage-free city category are Ambikapur (Chhattisgarh), Rajkot (Gujarat), Surat (Gujarat), Indore (Madhya Pradesh) and Navi Mumbai (Maharashtra).
Minister of State Kaushal Kishore, Chief Ministers and urban development ministers, 1,200 guests comprising diplomats, State and city administrators and senior officials, sector partners, and brand ambassadors, NGOs, and CSOs were present during the award ceremony.
The event also paid tribute to sanitation workers by recognising top performing cities under the ‘Safaimitra Suraksha Challenge’, an initiative earlier launched by the ministry to promote mechanised cleaning of sewers and septic tanks and preventing ‘hazardous cleaning’ in which a person enters them.
A total of 4,320 cities participated in the 2021 edition of the Swachh Survekshan. The cities are usually rated using a star system and this year, 342 cities, an increase from 56 in 2018, were given certificates under some star rating. This includes nine five-star cities, 166 three-star cities, 167 one-star cities.
This post was published on November 20, 2021 6:42 pm