Mysuru at No. 1, southern states top Swachh Bharat rankings

Mysuru in Karnataka and Thiruchirapalli (Trichy) in Tamil Nadu were ranked first and second among 476 cities in the "Swachh Bharat" rankings announced by the union urban development ministry on Saturday.

Over all 39 cities from the southern states of India were declared among the top 100 followed by 27 from the eastern states in the Swachh Bharat Rankings.

Besides Mysuru and Thiruchirapalli, other cities in the top 10 are Navi Mumbai, Kochi, Hassan, Mandya and Bengaluru in Karnataka, Thiruvananthapuram, Halisahar in West Bengal and Gangtok, the ministry said in a statement.

Thiruchirapalli is around 350 km from Tamil Nadu capital Chennai, which bagged the 20th position.

All the 476 Class-1 cities in 31 states and union territories, each with a population of above one lakh, were surveyed for assessing total sanitation practices covering a set of parameters.

The parameters included extent of open defecation, solid waste management, septage management, waste water treatment, drinking water quality, surface water quality of water bodies and mortality due to water-borne diseases.

"Thirty nine cities from the southern states are among the top 100 followed by 27 from the east, 15 from the west, 12 from the north and seven from the north-eastern states," the ministry said in a release.

The survey conducted during 2014-15 was commissioned by the ministry as required under the National Sanitation Policy of 2008.

"Mysore (Mysuru) city in Karnataka has topped the rankings of 476 cities in the country with three more from the state figuring in the top 10. West Bengal does well with 25 cities/towns from the state finding a place in the top 100 cities," it added.

According to the rankings, 15 of the 27 capital cities surveyed figured among the top 100 performers while five were ranked beyond 300. Bengaluru leads the list of capitals at 7th rank while Patna came at the bottom at 429.

Among the bottom 100 cities, 74 are from the North, 21 from the East, 3 from the West and 2 from the South.

Damoh (Madhya Pradesh) came at the bottom of 476, preceded by Bhind (MP), Palwal and Bhiwani, both in Haryana, Chittorgarh (Rajasthan), Bulandshahar (UP), Neemuch (MP), Rewari (Haryana), Hindaun (Rajasthan) and Sambalpur in Odisha at 467th rank.

Since the "Swachh Bharat" mission is being implemented in urban areas with the focus on construction of individual household, community and public toilets to eradicate open defecation and ensure door-to-door collection and disposal of municipal solid waste, all the 476 Class-1 cities have been ranked based on the data pertaining to these elements from out of the data generated in the survey.