Chandigarh is 12th cleanest city in India

Of a total of 7500 points, Chandigarh scored 6209 as per the cleanliness survey results that were declared on Saturday evening . The city scored 2512 points out of 3000 in the Service Level Progress component, 600 out of 1250 points in the GFC certification, 1000 out of 1000 points in the ODF certification head, and 2096 points out of 2250 in the Citizens Voice category.

The survey this time was conducted at 4354 cities and the results announced at an event at Talkatora Stadium in New Delhi that was presided over by the President of India Droupadi Murmu. Later, Kaushal Kishore, the junior Housing and Urban Affairs minister, gave away the awards for Swachh Survekshan-2022. The ceremony in Delhi was organized by the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.

Contacted, commissioner of Chandigarh Municipal Corporation, Anindita Mitra, stated that the reasons for UT’s improvement this year were several. “Chandigarh civic body has constantly been focusing on improving service delivery and citizen involvement. Segregation of waste has improved manifold, processing capacities have increased, and citizen feedback has improved,” she said.

On Saturday, Chandigarh Mayor Sarabjit Kaur Dhillon and UT commissioner Mitra received the award on behalf of the city at the ceremony.

Chandigarh municipality, in a statement released later, said, “Chandigarh, also known as City Beautiful and one of the country’s best-planned cities, has seen a huge improvement [this year]from its 66th position in Swachh Survekshan 2021. Last year, the city lackedproper garbage disposal and did not score well in citizen’s feedback.”

The civic corporation also claimed that it had learnt from last year, and had put in concerted efforts in segments that it lacked and managed to secure the 12th spot.

Sarabjit Kaur, Chandigarh Mayor said, “It is a proud moment for all Chandigarh residents, officials and municipal councillors who worked together to make Chandigarh stand true to its identity as City Beautiful.”

The criteria this year

In this year’s Swachh Survekshan, the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs gave more weightage to Service Level Progress component (sustainable sanitation and safai mitra suraksha, segregated collection of waste and processing and disposal) category by allotting 40 per cent weightage — a major criterion that helped in tilting the scales in Chandigarh’s favour while deciding the ranks.

The category of Citizen Voice (citizen feedback, citizen engagement, citizen experience, innovation and best practices by citizens, swachhata app, disaster/epidemic response preparedness) was allotted 30 per cent weightage, with the remaining weightage being reserved for the garbage-free city and ODF certification.

Ranking over the years

Chandigarh Municipal Corporation has been participating in Swachh Survekshan ever since its inception. In 2016, it had secured the second rank among 73 cities. In the 2017 ranking, the city stood 11th among 434 cities and in 2018, it was second runner up (third rank) among 4203 cities surveyed across the country. In 2019, the national ranking of Chandigarh dropped down to 20th. In 2020, Chandigarh ranked 16th and in 2021, it slipped massively to get the 66th rank.

What needs improvement

Indore, for the sixth time, has retained its number one rank in the survey. Here is a look at four things that Chandigarh needs to do to further improve its ranking in the Swachh surveys in the coming years

PROPER WASTE PROCESSING– Chandigarh still has to do a lot in ensuring that the waste generated by the city is processed. It has been more than two years that Chandigarh has been unable to properly process the waste generated on a daily basis after the sole company managing its waste processing plant — Jaypee group — exited the project. In 2020, only 13.36 per cent of waste was processed (excluding July), in 2018 the waste processing was 32.38 per cent, while in 2017 it was 30.75 per cent.

LANDFILL SITE – Most of the waste generated daily in the city is being dumped in the landfill site at Dadumajra. There are at least 50,000 people who live around the landfill site that poses a major health risk for them besides also violating their basic human right to clean air.

TECHNOLOGY– In July last year, the civic body zeroed in on the setting up of a waste-to-energy plant. However, nothing much has moved on the ground. The authorities later decided to upgrade the existing plant till the time a new waste plant was set up. However, even upgradation of the existing plant hasn’t taken place yet.

REDUCING WASTE– One of the three Rs, Chandigarh should look forward to reducing its waste generated daily, which at present is pegged at around 550 MT to 600 MT.