VIJAYAWADA: Two major cities in Andhra Pradesh-Vijayawada and Greater Visakhapatnam- are respectively the fourth and ninth cleanest cities in the country with a population of more than 10 lakh, according to the fifth edition of the nation-wide annual cleanliness survey ‘Swachh Survekshan 2020’.
The temple town of Tirupati was ranked sixth among cities with a population between 1 lakh and 10 lakh.
Union Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri on Thursday announced the rankings at the Swachh Mahotsav organised by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoUHA).
Further, Vijayawada secured the sixth rank, while Tirupati placed 12th and Greater Visakhapatnam 17th among the top 25 Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) in the counrty with more than 1 lakh people.
Vijayawada achieved the ‘cleanest big city’ award in the category for cities with over 10 lakh people. It had earlier received this distinction in 2018. Tirupati was named the ‘best self-sustainable small city’ (1-3 lakh population).
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Chirala received the award for best self-sustainable city (50,000-1 lakh population) in South Zone, while Palamaneru was named South Zone’s cleanest city (50,000-1 lakh population). Atmakur Municipality bagged the award for best self-sustainable city (25,000-50,000 population) in South Zone, while the ‘Fastest Mover City’ tag went to Mummidivaram Municipality.
AP stood sixth among States with over 100 ULBs. Among the top 100 cities in the 50,000-1 lakh population categories (South Zone), 40 were from Andhra PradeshPalamaner, Chirala, Punganoor, Kandukur, Mandapeta, Pulivendula, Narasapur and Tanuku were ranked one to eight.
Among cities with populations between 25,000 and 50,000 in the South Zone, 32 from Andhra Pradesh were among the top 100. Puttaparthi stood second, followed by Jammalamadugu at fifth, Nidadavolu at sixth and Ramachandrapuram at seventh place.
In the previous edition of the survey, Vijayawada was ranked 12th, Greater Vizag 23rd and Tirupati eighth. While Vijayawada and Greater Vizag improved their rankings, Tirupati secured the 12th rank this year.
Out of the total of 6,000 marks, Vijayawada secured 5,270.32, which included 1,329.09 for ‘service-level progress’, 1,100 for ‘certification’, 1,493 for ‘direct observation’ and 1,348.23 for ‘citizen feedback and Swachhata mobile application.