Swachh Survekshan Awards 2021 were presented by President Shri Ram Nath Kovind on Saturday at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi.
The event was organized by Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MOHUA).
Swachh Survekshan is an annual survey of cities and towns of India for cleanliness, hygiene and sanitation. It was launched under ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan’.
The 6th edition of ‘Swachh Survekshan’ has become the world’s largest survey with the participation of 4320 cities and over 4.2 crore feedback from citizens. It was conducted in a record time of 28 days. More than 24 lakh geotagged images were captured from the actual locations for this study.
Some of the things that the survey looks for are:
A. Waste Segregation and Management
B. Reuse of Water
C. Reduce solid waste based air pollution
But the survey is not just done once a year. Reports have to be submitted each month, and quarterly survey results are published on the government website. This tells each city and state how well they are doing.
The government has a special Namami Gange mission to clean the Ganga. So, towns on the banks of Ganga are adjuged separately. Likewise, Cantonments are adjudged in a separate category.
In the ‘more than 1 lakh population’ category Indore (Madhya Pradesh) has won the title of cleanest city in India for the fifth time in a row. Second position has been won by Surat (Gujarat) for the second consecutive year, while Vijayawada (Andhra Pradesh) bagged the third prize.
In the category of ‘population less than 1 lakh’ Vita, Lonavala, and Sasvad, all three from Maharashtra, were awarded the first, second and third positions respectively.
Chhattisgarh has been awarded as the cleanest state.
Cleanest Ganga town award went to Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh). Ahmedabad (Gujarat) got the award for the cleanest cantonment. Meerut Cantonment (Uttar Pradesh) and Delhi Cantonment grabbed the second and third positions respectively.
More than 300 awards were conferred under various categories at this event.