Varanasi surges as rest of Uttar Pradesh lags in Swachh Survekshan list

Indore has been ranked the country’s cleanest city, followed by Bhopal, in the Ministry of Urban Development’s Swachh Survekshan 2017 carried out in 434 cities and towns. Visakhapatnam, Surat and Mysuru are the next three cities in the top five.

Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu with secretary Rajiv Gauba.
Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu with secretary Rajiv Gauba. © PTI

The report was released to mark the completion of 2½ years of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s five-year Swachh Bharat Mission.

Faridabad was declared the fastest moving city with a population above one million, for improving its ranking from 379 in 2014 to 88 this year.

The rankings were released by Minister for Urban Development Venkaiah Naidu Thursday. Of the metros, New Delhi Municipal Council was 7th, Pune 13th, Ahmedabad 14th, Hyderabad 22nd and Greater Mumbai 29th. Bengaluru and Chennai were at 210th and 235th.

The survey shows Gujarat with 12 cities has the maximum number of cities in the top 50, followed by Madhya Pradesh at 11 and Andhra Pradesh with eight. In the top 100, too, Gujarat and MP dominate with 45 such cities between them, while Andhra Pradesh has another 16. Besides combining for 60 per cent of the cities each in the top-100 and top-50 lists, the three states also account for four of the top-5 cities.

Surat, which remains Gujarat’s cleanest city, breaks into the top five this year, rising two places from its sixth rank of 2016. Vadodara (10th), Ahmedabad (14th) and Rajkot (18th) too are in the top 20. Rajkot, however, has dropped 11 places from seventh last year.

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