Kochi lagging in cleanliness, Kerala govt should take responsibility: Goyal

The port city of Kochi is lagging in cleanliness and the local bodies as well as the Kerala government has to take responsibility for it, Union Commerce and Industries Minister Piyush Goyal said on Tuesday.

Goyal, while picking up garbage from the roadside in the Marine Drive area of the city, told reporters that he loves Kochi, but not in the way he sees it over here.

He also said that the city has plummeted several hundred positions in the cleanliness index in a short span of time.

"I also love Kochi. But I do not love it in the way I see it over here. I do not love Kochi when in a short span of time it falls from fifth rank to 324 in the swachhta index. I think it is extremely sad," the Union Minister said.

He further said "the local bodies and the government will also have to take responsibility" for the lack of cleanliness in the city.

The Union Minister was on a two-day visit to the southern state.

On Monday he inaugurated various infrastructure projects at the Cochin Special Economic Zone (CSEZ) here including a 13-storey office space for budding entrepreneurs and an effluent treatment plant.