NEW DELHI: Indore and Surat have been jointly declared the cleanest cities in India in the latest edition of the Swachh Survekshan Awards. Indore has won the title of cleanest city in India for the seventh consecutive time. Navi Mumbai has secured the third place, while the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) has been placed in the seventh position in the country.
Swachh Survekshan Awards 2023 have been conferred by the President of India, Droupadi Murmu, in an award distribution ceremony organised by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi. Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs, also attended the award ceremony.
During the ceremony, 13 awardees were felicitated by the President of India in various categories, including Clean Cities, Cleanest Cantonment, SafaiMitra Suraksha, Ganga Towns and Best Performing State.
This time, Indore has been sharing the title of India’s cleanest city with the port city of Surat. On the other hand, Maharashtra has bagged the top rank in the ‘best-performing state’ category, followed by Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh in second and third place.
In cities with population of less than one lakh category, Sasvad, Patan and Lonavala emerged as the top three rank holders. In the Cleanest Cantonment Board category, Mhow emerged as the victorious cantonment board, while Varanasi and Prayagraj bagged the awards under the Cleanest Ganga Towns category. Chandigarh was declared the Best Safaimitra Surakshit Sheher.
A total of 103 awards, including 24 national, 54 state and 20 zonal level awards to medium and small cities, were conferred in the ceremony held at Bharat Mandapam.
President Droupadi Murmu also addressed the ceremony, where she praised the states and urban local bodies for their performance while simultaneously highlighting the importance of the concept of ‘Waste to Wealth’, the theme of Swachh Survekshan for 2023.
Later, Hardeep Sing Puri also addressed the gathering. He said, “Today every city in India is ODF. This became possible because SBM went from a govt programme to becoming a Jan Andolan. The mission is a testimony to the vision of Antodaya se Sarvodaya.”
Manoj Joshi, Secretary, MoHUA, also spoke at the event. He said, “There’s been a lot of visible transformation in terms of Swachhata in the last 9 years. There is a toilet everywhere and for everyone. We have cleaned up 90 per cent of the country, need to clean up the remaining 10 per cent”.
| Top 10 Cleanest Cities in India | |||
| Rank | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 |
| 1 | Indore & Surat | Indore | Indore |
| 2 | NA | Surat | Surat |
| 3 | Navi Mumbai | Navi Mumbai | Vijayawada |
| 4 | Visakhapatnam | Visakhapatnam | Navi Mumbai |
| 5 | Bhopal | Vijayawada | NDMC |
| 6 | Vijayawada | Bhopal | Ambikapur |
| 7 | NDMC | Tirupati | Tirupati |
| 8 | Tirupati | Mysuru | Pune |
| 9 | Greater Hyderabad | NDMC | Noida |
| 10 | Pune | Ambikapur | Ujjain |
| Best Performing Indian States in 2023 | |
| Rank | State |
| 1 | Maharashtra |
| 2 | Madhya Pradesh |
| 3 | Chhattisgarh |
| 4 | Odisha |
| 5 | Telangana |
| 6 | Andhra Pradesh |
| 7 | Punjab |
| 8 | Gujarat |
| 9 | Uttar Pradesh |
| 10 | Tamil Nadu |