Indore adjudged cleanest city for sixth consecutive time; Surat retains second position, Navi Mumbai is third
New Delhi, October 1
Indore was adjudged India’s cleanest city for the sixth time in a row with Surat and Navi Mumbai following in the Central government’s latest annual cleanliness survey, the results of which were announced today.
Madhya Pradesh secured the first position, followed by Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra in the category of best performing states in ‘Swachh Survekshan Awards 2022’. While Indore and Surat retained their top positions in the big cities category, Vijaywada lost its spot to Navi Mumbai.
Among the states having fewer than 100 urban local bodies, Tripura bagged the top rank, dislodging Jharkhand, which had won in the last two consecutive years. Jharkhand and Uttarakhand received the second and third spots, respectively.
President Droupadi Murmu gave away the awards in the presence of Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri. The President urged all, especially the youth, to participate in this campaign and increase awareness about cleanliness in the society.
In the category of cities having population less than one lakh, Maharashtra’s Panchgani ranked number one, followed by Chhattisgarh’s Patan (NP) and Maharashtra’s Karhad.
Haridwar was adjudged the cleanest Ganga town in the category of more than 1 lakh population, followed by Varanasi and Rishikesh. Bijnor ranked first among Ganga towns with less than one lakh population, followed by Kannauj and Garhmukhteshwar, respectively.
Maharashtra’s Deolali was adjudged the country’s cleanest Cantonment Board. Tirupati received the best city award in Safai Mitra Suraksha while Shivamogga in Karnataka received the fast mover city award.
Indore further cemented its position by emerging as India’s first 7-star Garbage Free city, while Surat, Bhopal, Mysuru, Navi Mumbai, Visakhapatnam, and Tirupati earned 5-star Garbage Free certifications.
In all, 22 states and 5 UTs received awards, of whom 8 states received more than 10 awards each. 8 states and 5 UTs have shown improvements ranging between 5 – 25% in their overall ground level performance over last year.
The revised Star Rating Protocol of Garbage Free Cities was launched in 2021 to holistically evaluate cities across solid waste management parameters.
This year, the number went up manifold with 3,600 cities applying for the assessment against 2,238 last year, and number of star rated cities has gone up to 412 (with 11 five-star cities, 182 three-star cities, and 218 one-star cities), thus signifying how cities’ aspirations towards becoming Garbage Free is getting enhanced, say officials.
