Mumbai rank slips to 37 in national cleanliness survey; BMC promises better show next time

Mumbai's ranking slipped to 37 from 31 in the cleanliness survey for 2023, results of which were announced on Thursday, leading the local civic body to promise the city will do better next year on the back of a slew of efforts, including the recently launched 'deep cleaning drive'.

The neighbouring satellite city of Navi Mumbai held on to its third position (it was in same spot in 2022) in the Swachh Survekshan 2023, whose results were announced at a function in New Delhi attended by President Droupadi Murmu.

Indore and Surat jointly shared the first rank in the annual sanitation survey conducted by the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), which has undertaken a 'deep cleaning drive' for improving cleanliness in the financial capital, expressed confidence about an improvement in ranking in the next survey.

Mumbai, having an estimated population of around 12 million, secured the 37th rank among the million plus cities category, down from 31 in the last survey. Pune was ranked 10th on all-India level.

''We have undertaken extensive efforts (to improve cleanliness) and hence next year we will have much better performance,'' Dr Sudhakar Shinde, additional municipal commissioner, said.

Thane was ranked 14th in the Swachh Survekshan 2023, down from 13th spot in 2022, while Kalyan-Dombivli secured the 22nd position, an improvement from 24 in the last survey.

Mumbai's detailed report card showed it received 4446.19 marks out of 7,500 and ranked 189 nationally out of 446 cities (across different population categories).

Since last month, the BMC has started a deep cleaning drive, a brainchild of Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, under which debris and garbage are collected every weekend in specific areas. Shinde is taking personal interest in the drive and makes it a point to monitor its progress every week.

Indore bagged the cleanest city of India title for the seventh time in a row, while Surat came out a joint winner for the top rank in the Central government's annual cleanliness survey.

The list of top 10 cleanest cities with more than one lakh population also included Navi Mumbai, Greater Visakhapatnam, Bhopal, Vijayawada, New Delhi, Tirupati, Greater Hyderabad and Pune.

Three cities of West Bengal -- Madhyamgram (444th rank), Kalyani (445th rank) and Haora (446th rank) -- occupied the bottom rankings.

In the 'best-performing states' category, Maharashtra was named the cleanest in the country followed by Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.

In the last annual survey, Madhya Pradesh bagged the cleanest state title.

According to the survey results, Maharashtra's Sasvad got the cleanest city award among 3,970 cities with less than one lakh population.

Chhattisgarh's Patan and Lonavala, a hill station in Pune district, got the second and third positions, respectively, while Nagaland's Pungro city was ranked the last in this category.

President Murmu gave away the awards to the winners at the function which was also attended by Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri.

According to the data, 4,477 urban local bodies participated in the Swachh Survekshan 2023 and 12 core citizen responses were received.

As many as 92,720 municipal wards, 61 cantonment boards, 88 Ganga towns and 18,980 commercial areas participated in the survey. The government claims it to be the world's largest cleanliness survey.

The Swachh Survekshan 2023 focused on transforming waste into valuable resources and was evaluated by a team of over 3,000 assessors. As many as 110 awards were bestowed during the ceremony.

Evaluation parameters gave 51 per cent weightage to service level progress (segregated collection of waste, processing & disposal and safaimitra suraksha), 26 per cent to certification (ODF and other things) and 23 per cent to citizens' voice.

According to the housing and urban affairs ministry, the main goal of the survey is to encourage large scale citizen participation and create awareness among people about the importance of working together towards making towns and cities better places to live in.