Three cities from Andhra Pradesh — Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada and Tirupati — retained their positions in the top 10 of the All India Clean Cities category in the Swachh Survekshan, the Central government’s annual survey, the results of which were declared on January 11.
Visakhapatnam was declared the “cleanest city” in the State, and retained the 4th rank it had achieved in 2022 under the All India Clean Cities (population more than 1 lakh) category.
Vijayawada was given the 5-star rating for its efforts in garbage disposal and secured the 6th rank, beating both New Delhi and Hyderabad, which stood at 7th and 9th positions respectively.
The eighth place went to Tirupati, which was also given the 5-star rating for garbage disposal.
The State received five awards this time, and since 2019, the three cities had been featuring in the top 10 clean cities list.
The other cities in the State that secured top positions were as follows: Guntur (2nd rank in the Fast Moving City category (more than one lakh population) and Pulivendula (State’s Best Performer and Clean City in the category of less than a lakh population). Guntur (national rank 20), Kurnool (national rank 32), Kadapa (national rank 58) and Rajahmundry (national rank 59) feature in the top 100 cities with more than 1 lakh population.
Andhra Pradesh is the only State in the South to have four cities in the top 20 of the All India Clean Cities category.
Municipal Administration and Urban Development Minister A. Suresh and Mayors and Municipal Commissioners of the three cities received the awards from Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas and Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri at a function organised in New Delhi.
The other cities that featured in the top 10 list were Indore and Surat (1st rank) followed by Mumbai (3rd), Bhopal (5th) and Pune (10th).
As per information from the Press Information Bureau, the performance of more than 4,500 cities had been studied under 46 indicators, which included segregated door-to-door collection, zero-waste events, Divyang-friendly toilets, improved plastic waste management and cleaning back lanes.
This year, emphasis was laid on transforming manhole to machine hole, and on Waste-to-Wonder Park, both of which carried extra weightage.
