Visakhapatnam has been adjudged the ninth cleanest city in the country in the latest Swachh Survekshan (SS) Rankings 2020, in the category of cities with a population of over 10 lakh.
The rankings were announced by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) in New Delhi on Thursday.
Visakhapatnam is the second city in Andhra Pradesh to figure in the Top 10 cities after Vijayawada, which has secured fourth place.
The coastal city has seen a significant improvement in 2020 compared to last year’s performance, when it secured 23rd rank. This is for the third time in the last four years that Visakhapatnam has secured a spot in the Top 10 cities.
Indore in Madhya Pradesh retained its position for the fourth time as the cleanest city in India. Surat bagged the second spot while Navi Mumbai won third place.
While Swachh Survekshan 2019 had a total of 5,000 marks, this year’s survey carried 6,000 marks. The four main components included citizen feedback, service-level programmes, direct observation and certification, each carrying 1,500 marks. While Vijayawada secured 5,270.32 marks, Vizag secured 4,918.44 marks in the survey.
According to the results, in Documentation, GVMC secured 1,188.88 marks, while in Certification, the civic body secured 1,100. In Direct Observation, the civic body won 1,468.85 marks while in Citizen Feedback, GVMC secured 1,160.71 marks.
Vizag was announced the third cleanest city in the country in 2017. In 2018, the city slipped to seventh rank. In 2019, the coastal city dropped to 23rd rank. There was intense pressure on the civic body over its continuous decline in rankings for the past two years. However, the GVMC has learnt its lessons and started its preparations for the survey last year, putting renewed focus on segregation of waste and garbage disposal.
Areas of improvement
Additional Commissioner V. Sanyasi Rao said that the areas where GVMC has seen improvement compared to previous years was in the categories of Direct Observation and Garbage-Free Cities (GFC) ratings.
“In Direct Observation, GVMC secured 1,468.85 marks out of 1,500 which is more than 90%. Teams came to the city to inspect activities like door-to-door garbage collection, cleaning of roads and drains, and segregation of waste, and gave good marks after being satisfied with the civic body’s measures. This reflects the hard work of the staff and workers,” he said.
Mr. Sanyasi Rao said that even when the GFC ratings had dropped to one star in May 2020, GVMC officials went to New Delhi and applied for re-verification. Later, the Ministry announced three stars for the civic body. The ratings also helped, he said.
Attributing the success to GVMC officials, sanitation workers and citizens, GVMC Commissioner G. Srijana said that there are a few areas where the GVMC can improve. According to her, the GVMC has lost nearly 300 points in documentation over the works done in the civic body and poor downloads of Swachhata app.
