Swachh Survekshan 2017: These are the cleanest and dirtiest cities

Indians have voted Indore in Madhya Pradesh as the cleanest city in the country, while Gonda in Uttar Pradesh has been found to be the dirtiest, the government said today.

A view of Rajwada palace in Indore.

Bhopal, also in MP, occupies the second best spot among 434 cities, followed by Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh and Surat in Gujarat, Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said, announcing the results of an exercise he described as a citizens' verdict.

Naidu presents a trophy to the officials of Bhopal which was announced as the cleanest city in India, after the release of the survey 'Swachh Survekshan - 2017' and announcement of the cleanest cities in the country.

The 'Swachh Survekshan-2017' ranked Gonda in UP as the dirtiest city and Bhusawal in Maharashtra stands second-last in the ranking. Uttar Pradesh accounted for half of the bottom 50 cities in the cleanliness ranking. Bhusawal in Maharashtra is the dirtiest after Gonda, the survey states.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's constituency, Varanasi, has soared up the cleanliness scale, occupying the 32nd position in 'Swachh Survekshan-2017', which is a part of the Modi government's flagship Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (SBA) programme or Clean India Mission. It ranked 65th last year and 418th in 2014.

Gujarat has the maximum of 12 cities among the top 50 clean cities, closely followed by Madhya Pradesh with 11 and Andhra Pradesh with eight.

A view of Jain temples on top of Shatrunjaya hill.

Naidu said UP, Bihar, Rajasthan, Punjab and Kerala needed to substantially step up efforts to improve sanitation standards in urban areas.

About 18 lakh people's response to a set of six questions was taken into consideration for the survey after the elimination of duplicate feedback. Overall, the survey had elicited the views of 37 lakh people for the 434 cities, which account for about 60 per cent of the total urban population in the country.

Quality Council of India (QCI) conducted the survey during January-February this year. The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry is the nodal ministry for the QCI. They covered 434 cities and towns with a population of 1 lakh and above.

The survey aims at capturing the outcomes of ongoing efforts to stop open defecation in urban areas and to improve the door-to-door collection, processing and disposal of Municipal Solid Waste.

Naidu described Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, followed by Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, "as Movers and Shakers" for having significantly improved their rankings since 2014.

Mysuru in Karnataka, which bagged the first spot for the last two years, has slipped to the fifth position. Madhya Pradesh, with 11 cities in the top 50, and Andhra Pradesh, with eight, follow Gujarat.

West Bengal did not take part in the survey. Tiruchirapally in Tamil Nadu is the sixth cleanest city, followed by the New Delhi Municipal Council area of the national capital.