Swachh index: Hyderabad ranks 35th, slips eight notches
HYDERABAD: The rankings for Greater Hyderabad as well as Warangal and Karimnagar Municipal Corporations slipped further in the Swachh Survekshan (SS) - 2019 ranking, announced by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs in New Delhi on Wednesday.
The SS survey, an initiative under Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban) by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, to rank cities as per their sanitation standards, has awarded 35th rank to Greater Hyderabad, 81st to Warangal and 99th to Karimnagar among cities with over one lakh population. In SS 2018 rankings, Hyderabad ranked 27, Warangal 31 and Karimnagar 73.
In the South Zone Rankings, as many as 12 Urban Local Bodies of Telangana found a place in the SS rankings. They include Siddipet at 2, Sircilla at 4, Boduppal at 5, Bhongir at 17, Kollapur at 25, Peerzadiguda at 39, Medak at 45, Nirmal at 49, Shadnagar at 55, Korutla at 68, Vikarabad at 71 and Kodad at 89. In the overall rankings among States, Telangana stood at the 8th position as opposed to its seventh rank in 2018.
Visibly not much was done to improve the on-ground sanitation in the past one year. The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) had little to show the Quality Council of India (QCI) team who visited the city for this year’s survey during January this year.
This is a step down for the city which had stood 27th in 2018 of 4,041 urban local bodies, 22nd in 2017 of 434 ULBs and 19th among 73 cities surveyed in 2016.
Last year, GHMC was awarded Best Capital City in the Solid Waste Management (SWM) category, but this year it failed to reclaim the award.
Department of Municipal Administration and GHMC officials said that municipal corporations and municipalities failed to do better this year because of sudden advancement of Assembly polls in Telangana by over six months.