Swachh Survekshan 2018: Indore Retains Top Ranking As India’s Cleanest City, Seven Out Of Ten Dirtiest Indian Cities Belong To West Bengal

New Delhi: The final results of the Swachh Survekshan 2018 was released by the Union Ministry of Urban Affairs on June 23, a month after the names of India’s top three cleanest cities were announced by the Ministry. While Indore retained its top rank of being India’s cleanest city, followed by Bhopal, Chandigarh broke into the top 10 rankings to find a place as India’s third cleanest city. New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) was ranked as the fourth cleanest city in India, followed by Vijayawada at fifth, Tirupati at sixth and Visakhapatnam at seventh positions. Mysuru, Navi Mumbai and Pune were ranked as eighth, ninth and tenth cleanest cities of India, respectively.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, along with Union Minister for Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri handed over the awards to the winners at Indore. Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan was also present at the event. The Prime Minister also inaugurated urban development projects worth Rs 4,000 crores during his visit to Madhya Pradesh. The final report on the 2018 edition of the Swachh Survekshan was also released at the occasion, which contained the names of India’s top 100 cleanest cities.

Chennai, which ranked 232 last year showed major improvement to rank as India’s 100^th cleanest city. New Delhi Municipal Corporation had a mixed performance at the Survekshan. South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) tasted success, moving up to the 32^nd position from last year’s 202. North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) also showed slight improvement in its rankings, managing to move up to 206 from 279 last year. East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) however, plummeted to 341 from last year’s 196.

West Bengal, which did not participate in the earlier two editions of the Swachh Survekshan had participated in the 2018 survey and performed poorly. Seven of India’s ten dirtiest cities are in West Bengal, as per the Survekshan report. Simari Bakhtiyarpur in Bihar, Chandbali in Odisha and Khoda Makanpur in Uttar Pradesh were the other dirtiest cities in the country. West Bengal was ranked as the 28^th among 30 states, in terms of cleanliness. Jharkhand was adjudged as India’s cleanest state, followed by Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh.

Covering 4,203 cities between January and March 2018, the Swachh Survekshan 2018 was the largest pan Indian sanitation and cleanliness survey, impacting around 40 crore people. For the 2018 edition of the survey, the methodology of assessing the cleanliness of cities was more result oriented, with focus on sustainability of cleanliness mechanisms and innovation. Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said that the enthusiasm towards the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan was an indicator that it has ceased to become a government.

Also Read: Swachh Survekshan 2018: Here Are India’s Top 3 Cleanest Cities