Andhra Pradesh won the most number of awards followed by Telangana, Karnataka, and Puducherry. But no city from Kerala and Tamil Nadu received an award.
A moment from the Swachh Survekshan 2022 awards ceremony (Swachh Bharat Mission, India/Facebook)
Tirupati, Vijayawada, and Visakhapatnam from Andhra Pradesh, Mysuru from Karnataka, and the state of Telangana were some of the prominent winners from South India in the 2022 Swachh Survekshan Awards presented on Sunday, 2 October.
In its seventh year now, the Swachh Survekshan is an annual sanitation survey that ranks states, districts, and cities across India.
This year the survey was conducted between March and April in 4,354 cities, including 62 cantonment boards and 91 towns lying on the banks of River Ganga.
The Union Ministry of Jal Shakti, which presents the awards, called it the largest urban sanitation survey in the world.
The awards were presented by President Droupadi Murmu, who spoke about the need to build a clean, healthy, and self-reliant India.
President Droupadi Murmu graced the Swachh Bharat Diwas celebrations organised by the Ministry of Jal Shakti at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi. The President also presented Swachh Survekshan Grameen awards in various categories.
Details: https://t.co/EZd6UHM84J pic.twitter.com/pQhJLpSB0q
— President of India (@rashtrapatibhvn) October 2, 2022
Based on the population of a city, the awards were divided into various national, zonal, and state categories.
The level of progress from the previous year, parameters such as whether the place is open defecation free and the amount of garbage there, and the feedback from the residents are taken into account when determining the rankings.
Tirupati came top on the ‘Safaimitra Surakshit Sheher’ (cleanliness friendly city) list and was followed by Mysuru in Karnataka.
The port city of Greater Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh bagged the prize of ‘clean big city with a population between 10 and 40 lakhs’ whereas Vijayawada was in first place in the ‘cleanest capital’ of a state category.
All three cities also featured in the top 10 — Greater Visakhapatnam (4), Vijayawada (5), and Tirupati (7) — of the best 100 urban local bodies with a population of more than 1 lakh.
However, it should be noted that no South Indian city was placed in the top 10 of the best urban local bodies with fewer than 1 lakh people.
Telangana was adjudged the best state under the Swachh Survekshan Grameen, which looks into the sanitation status of rural areas.
This comes after 19 of its urban local bodies bagged Swachh Survekshan awards.
In the best districts category, Jagtial and Nizamabad secured the second and third spot respectively behind Bhiwani (Haryana).
Meanwhile, among the 62 cantonment boards, Secunderabad secured the first place under ‘best cantonment in citizens feedback’ category and fourth in the ‘overall cleanest cantonment’ list.
It finished behind Deolali (Maharashtra), Ahmedabad (Gujarat), and Mhow (Madhya Pradesh) cantonment boards.
Meanwhile, among the cleanest cities with more than 10 lakh people, the municipal corporations of Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, and Hyderabad were in the fourth, fifth, and tenth positions, respectively.
Shivamogga and Mysuru were the only cities from Karnataka that received the awards at the national level.
While the former was recognised as the ‘fastest moving Indian city’, the latter lifted the ‘cleanest medium city’ award, a prize for cities with the number of residents between 3 lakhs and 10 lakhs.
Meanwhile, the state capital Bengaluru suffered a drop of 15 spots, and was ranked 43rd among 45 cities this year as compared to the 28th spot last year.
Besides Karnataka, Karaikal town of Puducherry was rewarded as the ‘fastest moving Union Territory’ and the municipal corporations of Oulgaret-Ozhukarai in the UT clinched the first position in ‘innovations and best practices’.
On a surprising note, no city from Kerala and Tamil Nadu received a national award.
However, in the overall statewise progress from the previous year, Kerala was ranked third.
While Telangana was ranked fourth and its neighbour Andhra Pradesh seventh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu finished at the bottom spots among the 13 states with more than 100 urban local bodies.
Telangana finished behind Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Maharashtra.
Kerala was in sixth place among the 14 states with fewer than 100 urban local bodies .
Tripura, Jharkhand, and Uttarakhand came on top nationwide in this category.
For the sixth time in a row, Indore (Madhya Pradesh) bagged the first prize for cleanest Indian city followed by Surat (Gujarat).
Navi Mumbai (Maharashtra) retained its third spot, which it lost to Vijayawada in 2021.
The three cities were awarded the highest honour, the platinum award.
