Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri announced the Swacch Survekshan 2020 survey report on Thursday. The Ministry declared Indore as India’s cleanest city fourth time in a row under its Swachh Bharat Mission followed by cities like Surat and Navi Mumbai which grabbed the second and third positions respectively.
Bihar’s capital Patna was ranked as the dirtiest city in India with a population of more than 1 million. Among the cities with less than 10 lakh population, Bihar’s Gaya is the worst, followed by Buxar city of Bihar and Abohar in Punjab.
While Indore managed to retain the top position for four consecutive years (2017, 2018, 2019, 2020), Mysuru won the award for the cleanest city of India in the first edition of the survey.
This year, a total of 4242 cities were surveyed within 28 days. Feedback from 1.9 crore citizens was collected for the completely paperless survey. The survey focused on collection segregated waste and maintenance till processing site, treatment, and reuse of wastewater, curtailing solid waste-based air pollution, among other factors.
Swachh Survekshan is meant to monitor the performance of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, which was launched on October 2, 2014, the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. It aimed to make India open-defecation free by 2019.