LUCKNOW: Varanasi, one of the most ancient holy cities of the world, has been adjudged as the cleanest among the cities situated on the banks of river Ganga.
“Heartiest congratulations to PM Shri @narendramodi Ji, who represents the city in Lok Sabha, for his visionary leadership which has inspired the people of the town for this achievement,” tweeted Union Minister Hardeep Puri.
According to Swachh Survey-2020, a number of UP cities have done well on the scale of cleanliness. As compared to last year’s ranking given by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, a number of cities have been able to figure among the top 129 of 4203 cities adjudged in 2020.
While Varanasi has been found to be the cleanest among cities on the banks of river Ganga, Shajahanpur has been judged as having maximum citizen participation in the cleanliness drive among cities with a population one lakh and above. Similarly, Firozabad, the city of glass, has walked away with the ‘Best Mover’ award among cities with population from three lakh to 10 lakh.
While Indore remained the cleanest in the country for the fourth time in a row with 5647.56 points, UP capital Lucknow made considerable progress and remained at number 12th position securing 4728 points and remained the cleanest in the state. In 2019, Lucknow was at number 121 in the country.
Agra remained at number two position in UP and at number 16 in India securing 4391.51 points, Ghaziabad at number three in UP and 19th in India with 4283.26 points and Prayagraj at number four in UP and 20th in the country with 4141.47 points. The industrial hub of UP, Kanpur remained at number 5 position in the state and 25th in the country with 3783 points.
In 2019, Agra had been on number 85 in the country which is now at number 16. Even Kanpur has risen by 38 positions. In 2019 It was at 63rd position and now has been pushed up at 25th in the country.