Swachh Survekshan: MCD ranks 90th; Mayor office says better ranking going by old metric

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi has been ranked 90th among 446 urban local bodies having a population of more than one lakh, in 'Swachh Survekshan 2023', results of which were announced on Thursday.

This is the first time the MCD has taken part in the central government's annual cleanliness survey after the three civic bodies which existed earlier were unified again into a single entity in 2022.

Delhi Mayor Shelly Oberoi's Office, however, said MCD's actual ranking is ''28th'', the position the survey shows for it, among urban local bodies having a population of more than one lakh.

In 'Swachh Survekshan 2022', the NDMC was ranked 37th, the EDMC 34th and the SDMC 28th, in the category of cities with a population of more than 10 lakh.

Indore and Surat were adjudged the ''cleanest cities'' in the country, while Navi Mumbai retained the third position.

These cities and the MCD were ranked among 446 urban local bodies which span areas having a population of more than one lakh.

The municipal corporation in this category stood at the ''90th position'', according to the data shared on the website of 'Swachh Survekshan Awards 2023'.

According to the data, 4,447 urban local bodies participated in the survey and 12 core citizen responses were received. The government claims it to be the world's largest cleanliness survey.

According to the survey results, Maharashtra's Sasvad got the cleanest city award among cities with less than one lakh population.

The New Delhi Municipal Council was ranked 7th among the 446 urban local bodies, while Delhi Cantonment was ranked 7th in the cantonment board category, it said.

Mhow Cantonment Board in Madhya Pradesh got the top rank in the category of the cleanest cantonment boards.

The erstwhile Municipal Corporation of Delhi, set up in 1958, was trifurcated into -- NDMC (North Delhi Municipal Corporation), SDMC (South Delhi Municipal Corporation) and EDMC (East Delhi Municipal Corporation) -- in 2012.

In May 2022, the three civic bodies were merged again with Gyanesh Bharti and Ashwani Kumar taking charge as its municipal commissioner and special officer, respectively.

''The cleanliness system of Delhi has become better than before. This has been confirmed by the report of 'Swachh Survekshan 2023'. However, it still needs improvement,'' the mayor's office said in the statement.

According to the 'Swachh Survekshan 2023' report, Delhi has been ''ranked 28th this time, among cities with a population of more than one million''. Whereas according to the report of 'Swachh Survekshan 2022, North Delhi Municipal Corporation was ranked 37th, EDMC was ranked 31st and SDMC was ranked 28th, it said.

''In such a situation, last year's data clearly shows that MCD has made ''a lot of improvement in the cleanliness system this year. The overall rank of Delhi this time has been 28th,'' the statement said.

At the same time, the cleanliness ranking of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi has been ''better than many big cities''. The MCD has ''performed better than cities like Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore in terms of cleanliness,'' it claimed, referring to the ranking with reference to the 'million plus cities' category.

The mayor's office in its statement also alleged that Delhi's civic body was in a ''bad condition during the BJP rule''.

The BJP ruled the Municipal Corporation of Delhi for 15 years before the AAP unseated it in the December 2022 civic polls.

''Talking about the Swachh Survekshan ranking of 2017, South MCD (SDMC) was at number 202, North MCD 279, and East MCD (EDMC) 196 in the list of cities with a population of more than one lakh.

''Whereas in 2018, South MCD was ranked 132, North MCD 206, East MCD was 341st. Whereas in 2019, South MCD was ranked 138, North MCD 282, East MCD was 240th,'' it said.

''Apart from this, in 2022 also the average ranking was more than 120. On the other hand, in the list of cities with a population of more than 10 lakh in 2021, South MCD was at number 31, East MCD was 40 and North MCD was at number 45,'' it added.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)