NEW DELHI: Thirty-nine cities from the southern states have made it to the top 100 in the Swachh Bharat rankings, with Mysuru topping the list and Bengaluru leading the list of capitals.
Chennai came at the 61st position in the ranking while Madurai was way up at 20.
The survey, conducted in 476 cities during 2014-15, was commissioned by the Ministry of Urban Development as required under the National Sanitation Policy of 2008.
These rankings are based on the extent of open defecation and solid waste management practices in these cities.
Mysuru leads the list with minimal open defecation and extensive adoption of solid waste management practices.
As many as 15 of the 27 capital cities surveyed figured among the top 100 performers while five were ranked beyond 300. The top 10 cities on the list are Mysuru (Karnataka), Tiruchy (Tamil Nadu), Navi Mumbai, (Maharashtra) Kochi (Kerala) Hassan, Mandya and Bengaluru (Karnataka), Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala), Halisahar (West Bengal) and Gangtok (Sikkim), in that order.
In the top 100, 27 cities are from the east, 15 from the west, 12 from the north and seven from the northeast. Among the bottom 100 cities, 74 are from the north, 21 from the east, three from the West and two from the south.
All the 476 Class-1 cities in 31 states and Union Territories, each with a population of above one lakh, were surveyed for assessing total sanitation practices, covering a set of parameters, including the extent of open defecation, solid waste management, seepage management, waste water treatment, drinking water quality, surface water quality of water bodies and mortality due to water-borne diseases etc.
Since the Swachh Bharat Mission is being implemented in urban areas with the focus on the construction of individual household, community and public toilets to eradicate open defecation and ensure the door-to-door collection and disposal of municipal solid waste, all the 476 Class-1 cities have been ranked based on the data pertaining to these elements.
Over-all sanitation rankings of these cities, based on a total of 100 marks assigned to different parameters covering all aspects, will be announced later.
The Swachh Bharat rankings are based on a total of 42 marks, including 20 for open defecation indicators and 22 for solid waste management indicators.