Clean City Awards 2023
Context:
Recently, the Swachh Survekshan awards were given away by President Droupadi Murmu.
Relevance:
GS – 02, GS – 03 (Health, Welfare Schemes, Urbanization, Growth & Development)
Key Highlights:
- Cleanest Cities: Surat in Gujarat and Indore in Madhya Pradesh jointly declared the cleanest cities in India at the Swachh Survekshan awards for 2023.
- Indore secured the cleanest city title for the seventh consecutive year.
- Top 10 Cleanest Cities: Navi Mumbai, Greater Visakhapatnam, Bhopal, Vijayawada, New Delhi, Tirupati, Greater Hyderabad, and Pune follow Surat and Indore in the list of top 10 cleanest cities with a population of over one lakh.
- State Rankings: Maharashtra topped the state rankings, followed by Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. Odisha, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Sikkim, Karnataka, Goa, Haryana, and Bihar also featured.
- Cities with Population < 1 Lakh: Sasvad, Lonavala in Maharashtra, and Patan in Chhattisgarh secured top positions. Mhow Cantonment Board in Madhya Pradesh declared the cleanest cantonment Board.
- Ganga Towns: Varanasi and Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh awarded the cleanest Ganga towns.
- Theme for 2023 and 2024: The theme for the cleanliness survey 2023 was “Waste to wealth,” and for 2024, it is “Reduce, reuse and recycle.”
- Safest City for Sanitation Workers: Chandigarh won the award for being the safest city for sanitation workers.
- Bottom of the List: Madhyamgram, Kalyani, and Haora in West Bengal ranked lowest among cities, while Rajasthan, Mizoram, and Arunachal Pradesh were at the bottom of the state rankings.
- Waste Management: President Droupadi Murmu highlighted the importance of mechanized cleaning to eliminate manholes, aiming for 100% scientific processing of waste in the next two to three years.
- Expansion of Swachh Survekshan: The Swachh Survekshan, which began with 73 major cities in 2016, now covers 4,477 cities with over 3,000 assessors and nearly 12 crore citizen responses.
Source: TH
