NEW DELHI: Six cities including Ambikapur, Rajkot, Surat, Mysuru, Indore and Navi Mumbai have topped the list of cities and have been certified as five-star rated cities in the country by Ministry of Urban Affairs in the ranking of Garbage Free Cities. Sixty-five cities have been certified as Three-Star and 70 cities as One-Star.
In the national capital, only New Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) area has been given 3-star rating while Delhi Cantt. the area got one-star.
Moreover, no cities from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and many other states could qualify for a three-star rating.
While announcing the results of the Star Rating of Garbage Free Cities, Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Puri said that the importance of sanitation and effective solid waste management has been brought to the forefront now due to the COVID crisis.
“In fact, it would not be an exaggeration to say that the present situation could have been much worse had it not been for the critical part that SBM-U has played in the last five years to ensure a high degree of cleanliness and sanitation in urban areas,” he added.
The minister said that this certification is not only an acknowledgement of the clean status of Urban Local Bodies and strengthened solid waste management (SWM) systems but also a mark of trust and reliability akin to universally known standards.
Moreover, the performance of cities under the Star Rating Protocol is crucial as it carries significant weightage when it comes to their final assessment in Swachh Survekshan.”
Urban affairs secretary, D S Mishra informed that during the assessments, 1.19 crore citizen feedbacks and over 10 lakh geo-tagged pictures were collected and 5175 solid waste processing plants were visited by 1210 field assessors.