India announces its cleanest, dirtiest cities

Indian government Monday released its list of the cleanest and dirtiest cities as part of its much publicized and ambitious program of "clean India mission."

Mysuru, a city in southern state of Karnatka, was declared India's cleanest city, while Dhanbad in eastern Jarlkhand was described as the dirtiest.

The index was released by Minister for Urban Development M Venkaiah Naidu in New Delhi.

According to officials, the cleanliness ranking came after surveying 73 cities, each with a population of more than one million.

"The top 10 cities in terms of sanitation and hygiene in order of rank are Mysuru, Chandigarh, Tiruchirapalli, New Delhi Municipal Council, Visakhapatnam, Surat, Rajkot, Gangtok, Pimpri Chindwad and Greater Mumbai," a statement released by the Indian government said.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched "clean Indian mission," locally named as swachh bharat abhiyaan, soon after coming to power in 2014.

The program envisages eradicating open defecation (prevalent in India), building public toilets and cleaning up public places, among other things.

The bottom cities include Kalyan Dombivili, Varanasi, Jamshedpur Ghaziabad, Raipur, Meerut, Patna, Itanagar, Asansol and Dhanbad, according to the release.

Interviews of 100,000 ordinary citizens have been conducted to know whether dustbins and toilets were available, besides other relevant questions.

Modi government has pledged that every household in India will have a toilet by 2019.

In 2014, the ministry had carried out a similar survey in 476 cities and municipalities with a population of over 100,000 people. The survey found Delhi the dirtiest while Mysuru, Bangalore, Kochi and Navi Mumbai, the cleanest.

Naidu said that to promote cleanliness, his ministry plans to survey all the 500 cities (each with a population of 100,000 and above) for cleanliness every year and award top ranking ones. Endit