The rankings take into account door-to-door collection of waste, segregation at source, cleanliness of public areas, clean water bodies and citizens’ feedback regarding the cleanliness of their cities.
On Thursday, Indore and Surat were jointly declared winners of the cleanest city award, while Maharashtra secured the top position among states in the Union government’s annual cleanliness rankings for urban areas.
Indore claimed the cleanest city title for the seventh consecutive year in the Swachh Survekshan Awards. Surat, which had consistently secured the second position after Indore for the past three years, clinched the top award for the first time.
Both cities achieved impressive metrics, with 100% door-to-door collection of waste, 98% segregation at source, and 100% remediation of dumpsites, as reported by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs’ Swachh Survekshan 2023 dashboard. Notably, both cities shared the top spot among urban areas with a population exceeding 1 lakh.
The rankings take into account door-to-door collection of waste, segregation at source, cleanliness of public areas, clean water bodies and citizens’ feedback regarding the cleanliness of their cities.
Of the eight rounds of annual awards since 2016, this was the first time that two cities shared the top prize. Navi Mumbai was named the third cleanest city.
Maharashtra secured the cleanest state award with an impressive 89.24% door-to-door collection and 67.76% source segregation. Following closely, Madhya Pradesh claimed the second position with 90.59% door-to-door segregation and 54.1% source segregation.
Chandigarh received the award for the city with the best safety standards for sanitation workers, known as the Safaimitra Surakshit Shehar. Varanasi was recognized as the cleanest 'Ganga town,' while Sasvad in Maharashtra was named the cleanest city among those with a population below 1 lakh. Mhow Cantonment earned the title of the cleanest cantonment in the country.
Conversely, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Rajasthan, Nagaland, and Tripura were ranked as the bottom five states in the cleanliness rankings.
Since its inception with 73 cities in 2016, the annual cleanliness ranking has seen a substantial increase in the number of cities covered. In the 2023 round, the assessment extended to 4,416 urban local bodies, 61 cantonments, and 88 Ganga towns. The Ministry reported receiving 1.58 crore online citizen feedback and conducting 19.82 lakh face-to-face views as part of the ranking process.
During the awards ceremony, President Droupadi Murmu emphasized the importance of generating wealth from waste. She highlighted the significant issue of vast urban lands being buried under mountains of garbage, negatively impacting health. President Murmu noted that the Swachh Bharat Mission is actively working to eliminate such legacy dumpsites.
Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said scientific processing of waste had increased from 15-16% in 2014 to almost 76% now. Housing and Urban Affairs Secretary Manoj Joshi said cities were working to achieve 100% processing of waste.
He said there were still some instances of sanitation workers cleaning sewers manually, leading to accidents and deaths – something which must be “completely eliminated”.
Top 10 Big Cities (Population over 10 lakh) in 2023:
Indore (Maintained the same rank as in 2022)
Surat (Maintained the same rank as in 2022)
Navi Mumbai (Maintained the same rank as in 2022)
Visakhapatnam (Maintained the same rank as in 2022)
Bhopal (Moved up from rank 6 in 2022)
Vijayawada (Moved down from rank 5 in 2022)
Greater Hyderabad (Moved up from rank 10 in 2022)
Pune (Moved down from rank 9 in 2022)
Raipur (Moved up from rank 11 in 2022)
Pimpri Chinchwad (Moved up from rank 19 in 2022)
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