KOCHI:The Swacch Survekashan 2018, the results of which were announced the other day, came out along the expected lines with not a single Kerala city or town figuring among the top half. Indore in Madhya Pradesh emerged as the country’s cleanest city, with Bhopal and Chandigarh bagging the second and third position, respectively, according to the rankings announced by the Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) Ministry on Wednesday evening.
Though the survey was carried out in 4,203 local bodies including the six municipal corporations - Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Kochi, Thrissur, Kozhikode and Kannur - and other towns like Palakkad and Alappuzha, none of them managed to make it to the top rankings. The detailed report of the Swach Survekshan 2018 is yet to announced by the ministry. According to the rankings, which only featured the list of top-ranked cities, Siddipet from Telangana is the cleanest city in the South India zone.
Though the Kochi Corporation and other local bodies took efforts to improve the rankings by cleaning up the canals and undertaking cleaning drive, it turned out to be an exercise in futility. If Kochi was ranked fifth in the first assessment, it slipped to the 75th position the following year.In 2017, Kochi nose-dived to the 271th spot with only a few cities ranked further down. State’s capital Thiruvananthapuram was the worst performer from the state in 2017.
Mayor Soumini Jain told Express only the names of top-ranked cities were announced on Wednesday. “ At present, we can’t say anything about Kochi’s ranking. Though it was in the 271 position last year we had undertaken a lot of activities to improve the rankings. Only after getting the complete result can we comment on the matter,” she said.
Unlike the previous Swachh Survekshan surveys, this year the thrust was on the sustainability of waste management and maintenance of public and community toilets.“The Swachhata App was recently released by the ministry and it made the users give the negative mark to the local bodies and this too may have impacted the rankings. As per the app data, several negative comments were made against the local bodies in the state over timely disposal of waste,” said a Suchitwa Mission officer.