Odisha secures 4th Rank overall with three of its cities in top 100 of Swachh Survekshan 2023

Odisha secures 4th Rank overall with three of its cities in top 100 of Swachh Survekshan 2023

Odisha experienced a leap of five positions from 9th rank to 4th rank in the Swachh Survekshan 2023 rankings. The state left behind other states in the ranking such as Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat. At the same time, only three Odia cities could make it to the top 100 list with 1 lakh or above population, namely Bhubaneswar, Puri and Balasore.

Bhubaneswar, which was declared the cleanest city in Odisha, made significant strides, climbing 46 spots to secure 34th position nationally. It was ranked 80th in the previous edition of the survey.

The Swachh Survekshan awards were given away by President Droupadi Murmu in New Delhi on Thursday. Bhubaneswar Mayor Sulochana Das along with Municipal Commissioner Vijay Amruta Kulange received the clean city award for the Smart city from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA). The state capital also received 3-star rating for being a garbage-free city and was the only city in Odisha to receive the prestigious Water Plus Award.

Apart from Bhubaneswar, Puri and Balasore were ranked 62 and 99, respectively. However, Rourkela and Berhampur slipped in the cleanliness ranking this year. The ranking of the Steel City, which had earned state’s cleanest city tag in 2022, tumbled down to 119 from 45, last year and it dropped out of the top 100 positions. Similarly, Berhampur fell from 90 to 111 rank this year among the large cities.

While no city from the state found a place in the top 20 big cities, Chikiti NAC was ranked 12 among cities having a population below 1 lakh. Bhanjanagar NAC was also ranked 79 among small cities in the national ranking.

The survey evaluated cities based on their cleanliness and sanitation practices and received over 12 crore citizen responses, making it the largest cleanliness survey in the world.