Swachh Survekshna: Visakhapatnam, Surat, Rajkot and Gangtok improve ranks to break into top 10

NEW DELHI: Mysuru, Chandigarh and Tiruchirappalli are the cleanest cities in India, according to a 73-city survey conducted to gauge the impact of Swachh Bharat Mission. PM Narendra Modi’s Varanasi constituency, however, remains one of the 10 dirtiest cities despite his pet cleanliness initiative, the survey said.

The survey called Swachh Survekshna was conducted in cities with a population of 10 lakh and above. It has revealed that cities in the south and east have taken better to the Swachh Bharat Mission than cities in the north and west. The first survey was conducted in 2014, before the Mission was launched in October 2014. Even then the 476-city survey had thrown up Mysuru as the winner.

A comparative analysis of the two successive surveys show that four cities improved their ranks to break into top 10 in 2016. These include Visakhapatnam, Surat, Rajkot and Gangtok. The cities have pushed down Navi Mumbai, Chennai, Pune and Nashik, which had finished in the top 10 in 2014.

The survey found Dhanbad the dirtiest city. The 10 dirtiest cities include three cities from Uttar Pradesh — Varanasi, Ghaziabad and Meerut, represented by BJP MPs. Apart from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, ministers VK Singh and Rajendra Agrawal represent Ghaziabad and Meerut, respectively. Kalyan Dombivilli, Jamshedpur, Raipur, Patna, Itanagar and Asansol are other cities at the bottom of the survey.


Releasing the 73-city survey ranking, urban development minister M Venkaiah Naidu blamed the local administration when asked why the PM"s constituency had fared badly in the initiative. "The local administration can best reply to this. If it has fared poorly, then the administration should work towards improvement."

While Mysuru has been the clear winner, Tiruchirappalli, ranked third in the 2016 survey, achieved best behavioural change. The study was conducted by Quality Council of India, which deployed 25 teams involving a total of 100 trained surveyors for verification of documents, field observation and obtaining citizen feedback.