Indore and Jamshedpur have topped the cleanliness charts for two consecutive quarters among cities with over 10 lakh population and with 1 lakh to 10 lakh population respectively.
Kolkata remained at the bottom of the ranking of 49 major cities across both quarters as West Bengal did not participate in the nationwide exercise. The Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) on Tuesday announced the results of the first and second quarters of the Swachh Survekshan 2020.
League format
The rankings, being conducted in a league format for the first time, were split into three quarters (April to June, July to September and October to December 2019) and different categories based on the population of the city.
MoHUA secretary Durga Shanker Mishra said Indore, which had been judged number one in the past three sanitation surveys, remained the top slot in the first two quarters of 2019. Bhopal,which came in second in the first quarter, was replaced by Rajkot in Gujarat in the second quarter. Surat was at number three in the first quarter, but Navi Mumbai made it to the third spot in the second quarter rankings.
Mr. Mishra said West Bengal officials had assured him that the State would participate in the ranking next time.
Delhi falls
Among cities with population between 1 lakh and 10 lakh, Jamshedpur in Jharkhand got the top rank in both quarters. New Delhi fell from second position in the first quarter to sixth position in the second quarter and was replaced by Chandrapur in Maharashtra at second place. A national-level survey of cleanliness of cities will begin from January 4, leading to the final Swachh Survekshan 2020 rankings.
HUA Minister Hardeep Puri said the cleanliness survey had become a “part of our consciousness”, after starting from a limited survey of 73 cities in 2016 to today, covering almost all urban areas.
