Delhi lags behind in cleanliness survey

NEW DELHI: Notwithstanding the emphasis on swachh Bharat, the civic bodies in the country's power capital have finished poorly in the government's cleanliness ranking announced on Thursday.

In the swachh Bharat reckoning of 434 cities for 2016-17, areas falling under the three municipal corporations are at a low –the EDMC (196), SDMC (202) and North MCD (279).

The Delhi Cantonment Board stands at number 172 while the New Delhi Municipal Council area, which houses the country's power corridors, has slipped to seventh from its fourth position last year.

In 2016, out of 73 cities, areas under the north, the south and the east Delhi municipal corporations had finished at 43rd, 39th and 52nd positions respectively.

The 2017 survey also has a category of ‘72 million plus cities' in which the position of the EDMC has slightly improved to 45th from the 52nd slot last year (for this population category). The north corporation, in the ‘72 million plus cities' category has fallen to 65th from 43rd position while the SDMC has dropped to 47th from 39th slot last year.

The urban development ministry had commissioned the survey for 434 cities and towns with population of 1 lakh and above in January and February this year. West Bengal, however, did not participate in the survey. The first survey in 2014 was launched before the announcement of Swachh Bharat Mission in October 2014.

The last survey was conducted in 2016 which covered 73 cities with over 10 lakh population each and capital cities.