Srinagar gets cleaner, Jammu ranks among dirtiest cities
Srinagar ranked 36th among the cleanest cities in India, while Jammu ranked among the dirtiest cities for the fourth successive year securing 224th rank under the Swachh Survekshan 2020 announced on Thursday.
This was revealed by the Ministry of Housing and Union Affairs on Thursday in which Srinagar secured 36th rank with 2905.58 points out of 4000.
Jammu city ranked among the dirtiest cities for the fourth successive year, securing 224th rank and secured 2284.16 points among 382 cities and towns of India with a population of less than 10 lakh.
The announcement of this year’s results was delayed due to COVID-19 pandemic and it covered 4242 cities, saw the participation of 1.87 crore citizens, and was completed in 28 days.
According to the survey, Indore (Madhya Pradesh) has been adjudged India’s cleanest city for the fourth straight year while Surat in Gujarat and Navi Mumbai in Maharashtra were ranked second and third.
In the category of a population of less than 1 lakh, Maharashtra’s Karad bagged the first position followed by Saswad and Lonavala.
Chhattisgarh was ranked the cleanest state of India in the ‘under 100 Urban Local Bodies’ category while Jharkhand was adjudged the cleanest state of India in the ‘above 100 Urban Local Bodies’ category.
Every year, cities and towns across India are awarded the title of ‘Swachh Cities’ based on their cleanliness and sanitation drives as a part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan that was launched in 2014.
The Aurvekshan was conducted on mainly three parameters – Service Level Progress (SLP) direct observation and citizen feedback.
It is the Government of India’s annual survey on cleanliness under the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM).
Commissioner SMC, Gazanfar Ali applauded the role of sanitary workers in improving the ranking by being dedicated to conducting effective sanitation as well in current situation of COVID-19 pandemic.
He also appreciated the role of officials to improvise upon the overall sanitation and implementing guidelines of SBM that eventually helped in improving the ranking in Survekshan.
“With the help of our sanitary workers, who work tirelessly, and responsible citizens with their responsive feedback, SMC will definitely achieve best results in cleanliness in the future also,” Ali said.
Chief Sanitation Officer, SMC Mudasir Banday told Kashmir Post that in order to be among the top 5, SMC requires adequate equipment and manpower.
“ Still, we have managed to achieve 36th rank due to our hard work and cooperation from respected citizens of Srinagar city,” he said.
Banday appealed the citizens to cooperate with them in making Srinagar City clean, green and garbage-free.
In 2019, Srinagar secured 357th rank in Swachh Survekshan while Jammu had secured 318 respectively.
The survey focused on collection segregated waste and maintenance till processing site, treatment and reuse of wastewater, curtailing solid waste-based air pollution among other factors.
