UP, Bihar needs substantial improvement: Naidu

Union Minister for Urban Development M. Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday while announcing the results of the Swachh Survekshan 2017 survey said Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Punjab and Kerala need to substantially step up efforts to improve sanitation standards in urban areas.

Reflecting upon the position of these states in the rankings released today, Naidu said there is room for improvement with an increase in citizen participation this year.

While 25 towns from Uttar Pradesh featured among the bottom 50 cities, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's constituency, Varanasi, claimed the 32nd position, taking a big leap from rank 418 in 2014.

Faridabad in Haryana also improved its rank from 379 in 2014 to 88 this year and was awarded for being the 'Fastest Mover' among cities with a population of above one million each.

Madhya Pradesh's Indore was declared the cleanest city, while Mysuru in Karnataka, which was last year's winner, dropped to the fifth spot.

Thirty-eight cities were awarded, including the top five clean cities at the national level, cleanest cities and fastest movers in different zones in five to ten lakh and two to five lakh population categories.

Swachh Survekshan-2017 aimed at capturing the outcomes on ground of the ongoing efforts to make urban areas Open Defecation Free and to improve door-to-door collection, processing and disposal of Municipal Solid Waste.

Of the total score of 2,000, 900 marks were assigned for performance in respect of ODF and solid waste management, 600 marks for citizen feedback and 500 marks for independent observation.

The Quality Council of India that conducted the survey during January-February this year deployed 421 assessors for on the site inspection of cleanliness in 434 cities and towns and another 55 for real time monitoring of progress of survey and field inspections.

Field inspectors used geo-tagged devices for collecting evidence in real time of their inspection at 17,500 locations.