NEW DELHI: The President of India Droupadi Murmu felicitates the cleanest states and cities during an award ceremony held under the title Azadi@75 Swachh Survekshan 2022, as part of the Swachh Bharat Mission Urban 2.0. The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India, held the award distribution ceremony on October 1, at Talkatora Stadium, New Delhi.
The event also celebrated eight years of the Swachh Bharat Mission, which was launched in 2014, and the first anniversary of the Swachh Bharat Mission – Urban 2.0. During the celebration, the states/ union territories (UTs) and towns and cities that have achieved excellent results in the field of cleanliness and sanitation received the Swachh Survekshan 2022 Awards and certificates for Garbage Free Cities (GFC) cities.
Murmu launched the Swachh Survekshan 2022 Dashboard and presented around 12 awards. Indore, the city of lakes, again emerged as the ‘Cleanest City’ in the country for the sixth consecutive year in ‘more than 1 lakh population’ category. Surat emerged as the second ‘Cleanest City’ in the same category for a second time in a row, followed by Navi Mumbai in the third place.
In the ‘less than 1 lakh’ population category, Panchgani from Maharashtra came first, followed by Patan from Chhattisgarh in the second position and Karad, again from Maharashtra, was placed in the third position.
Tirupati from Andhra Pradesh was awarded the best city in the Safai Mitra Suraksha Challenge, and Haridwar in Uttarakhand was declared the best Ganga town award in ‘more than 1 lakh population’ category. On the other hand, Shivamogga in Karnataka received the fast mover city award.
Indore was also declared the first 7-star Garbage Free City in India. Similarly, Surat, Bhopal, Mysuru, Navi Mumbai, Vishakhapatnam and Tirupati received the 5-star Garbage Free certification.
Surprisingly in the state-level awards, Madhya Pradesh was declared the cleanest state in India in ‘more than 100 urban local bodies’ (ULB) category pushing the state of Chhattisgarh into second place. For the last three years, Chhattisgarh had occupied the first place. The coastal state of Maharashtra emerged as the third cleanest state in India.
In the ‘less than 100 ULB’ category, Tripura emerged as the top performer pushing Jharkhand into second position which was winning the cleanest city award for the last two years. The Himalayan state of Uttarakhand secured the third cleanest state in this category.
This year, Swachh Survekshan recorded the participation of 4,355 cities and feedback from over nine crore people was collected, while last year it was only five crore. Out of 22 states and five UTs which were awarded this year, eight states received more than ten awards each. On the other hand, eight states and five UTs have shown improvement spanning between 5 to 25 per cent compared to their overall performance last year. Similarly, four out of the eight northeastern states have shown considerable improvement.
Additionally, 10 Cantonment Boards (7 last year) and 2 Ganga Towns have been awarded this year. Smaller cities with a recorded population of less than 25,000 have admirable performance securing around 40 awards.
The Star Rating Protocol was launched in 2021, aiming to evaluate the performance of the cities based on solid waste management parameters. Around 3,600 cities have applied for the assessment this year, while only 2,238 cities applied last year. There were 11 five-star cities, 182 three-star cities and 218 one-star cities in this year’s assessment which highlights the aspiration of cities to attain the Garbage Free City status.