Govt to announce and award India's cleanest cities

New Delhi, Nov 18 The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) on Thursday said President Ram Nath Kovind will honour the awardees of 'Swachh Survekshan (SS) 2021' at the 'Swachh Amrit Mahotsav', to be organised by the ministry, here on November 20.

"The President will award cities certified under the 'star rating protocol for garbage free cities'. The Mahotsav will also pay tribute to the sanitation workers by recognising top performing cities under the 'Safaimitra Suraksha Challenge' earlier initiated by the Ministry," the statement said.

More than 3,000 Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) in the country have notified ban on non-biodegradable plastic bags.

According to the ministry, the success of SS can be gauged through the unprecedented number of citizen feedback received this year over 5 crore, a marked increase from last year's 1.87 crore.

The number of cities surveyed also increased from 73 in 2016 to 4,320 have participated in 2021.

The ministry pointed out that six states and six Union Territories (UTs) have shown overall improvement (ranging between five to 25 per cent) in their overall ground level performance over last year more than 1,100 additional cities have started source segregation, nearly 1,800 additional ULBs have started extending welfare benefits to their sanitation workers.

"More than 1,500 additional ULBs have notified a ban on the use, sale and storage of non-biodegradable plastic bags, in all more than 3,000 ULBs have notified this ban. All northeastern states have shown significant improvement in their citizens' feedback yet another testimony to how the Mission is reaching out to every citizen, including in far flung areas," the ministry said.

In 2018, only 56 cities were awarded certification on some star rating.

This year, the number has gone up manifold, to 342 cities (with nine five-star cities, 166 three-star cities, and 167 one-star cities).

The Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban (SBM-U) 2.0, launched on October 1 this year will focus on ensuring complete access to sanitation facilities for all.