The battery of initiatives launched by the authorities to improve the ranks of the city in the Swachh Survekshan Survey appears to have fallen short as Visakhapatnam has slipped to the 23rd position this year from the seventh last year. The results were announced by President Ram Nath Kovind in New Delhi on Wednesday.
A look at the ranks of the city in the past few years reveals that after being adjudged as the third cleanest city in India in 2017, which was two notches higher in the rank card when compared to the results in 2016, the city has kept sliding down in the last two years in the annual survey being conducted by the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA).
This year, Tirupati has bagged the eighth rank while Vijayawada is in the 12th position.
Performance indicators
This year, the ranks were awarded on the performance of the cities on a 5,000-mark scale which includes four categories—certification for free of garbage and open defecation (ODF), service level progress judged on the basis of collection of data from online MIS portal of the MoHUA and online submission of documents to the Swachh Survekshan-2019, feedback from citizens through voting, Swachtha App and direct observation by the teams during field inspection. Each of the these categories carred 25% of the marks, which is around 1,250.
According to the results, Visakhapatnam has secured 3,744 marks of the total 5,000. The city has scored 914 marks in service level progress, 600 in certification, 1,193 in direct observation and 1,037 in citizen feedback. Indore which was chosen the cleanest city in the country is almost 915 marks ahead that of Vizag, while Tirupati and Vijayawada are 281 and 138 points ahead of Vizag respectively.
Poor rating
Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) Commissioner M. Hari Narayanan opined that the city could achieve only a 2-star rating in the ‘Garbage Free Cities’ component in the certification category, which resulted in the drop in the rank.
It may be noted that the star rating is given on the progress on key indicators such as cleanliness of drains and water bodies, plastic waste management, managing construction and demolition waste among others.
The star ratings and ODF status come under the certification category in which the city has secured 600 out of 1,250. On the other hand, Indore has bagged the five-star rating, by scoring 1,050 marks in the certification process. Vijayawada and Tirupati have been awarded 750 each in the certification category.
“The GVMC has put in all its effort this year and will continue to do so in the coming years. We will work much harder this time to achieve the five-star rating,” Mr. Hari Narayanan told The Hindu.
