Indore topped the list of 10 cleanest cities of the country, while Uttar Pradesh's Gonda ranked as the dirtiest one, Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu announced here on Thursday.
The outcome is based on a cleanliness survey -- Swachh Survekshan-2017 -- undertaken in 434 cities by the Urban Development Ministry as part of the Narendra Modi government's "Swachh Bharat Abhiyan".
Bhopal came second, while Vishakhapatnam was placed third among the top clean cities and towns, the Minister of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation told reporters at the local National Media Centre.
The fourth slot has been claimed by Gujarat's Surat, while Mysore, which would be first in the previous lists of clean cities, slips to the fifth place.
Tiruchirapally is placed at sixth position, followed by the New Delhi Municipal Council area at seven, Navi Mumbai at eight, Tirupati at nine and Vadodara at 10.
The survey revealed that six of the top 10 clean cities have improved their sanitation rankings in 2017 in comparison to the 2016 and 2014 rankings.
Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh account for 31 of the top 50 clean cities, with 12 in Gujarat, 11 in MP and eight in AP. Telangana and Tamil Nadu account for four cities each in top 50, followed by Maharashtra with three.
Chandigarh, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Sikkim and Uttar Pradesh have one city each in top 50 clean cities of the country.
While 14 cities from states/UTs find a place among the top 50 clean cities, competition is not so much for a place in bottom 50, with Uttar Pradesh alone accounting for 25 of the bottom 50 towns.
Five of the Uttar Pradesh cities have been ranked among the 10 dirtiest in India, with Gonda topping the list.
Bhusawal in Maharashtra has been ranked as the second dirtiest city, while Bihar's Bagaha stands third and Uttar Pradesh's Hardoi fourth.
The other Uttar Pradesh places that feature in the list of unclean towns and cities of India are Bahraich (sixth), Shahjahanpur (ninth) and Khurja (10th).
Bihar's Katihar is the fifth unclean city. Two places in Punjab, Muktsar (seventh) and Abohar (eighth), are also in the 10 most unclean cities.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home constituency of Varanasi, in Uttar Pradesh, jumped from 418th ranking in 2014 to 32nd in 2017.
"We are heading towards fulfilling the dream of making cleanliness a movement," Naidu said.
Rajasthan and Punjab have five towns each in the bottom 50, followed by Maharashtra-two and one each from Haryana, Karnataka and Lakshadweep.
Out of the 62 cities and towns surveyed in Uttar Pradesh in 2017, 41 of them figure among the bottom 100 cities or towns.
Jharkhand and Chattisgarh have emerged as the major success stories in the Swachh Survekshan-2017.
While all the nine cities or towns of Jharkhand surveyed in 2017 have substantially improved their rankings over that of 2014 and 2016, seven of eight in Chhattisgarh have achieved this feat.
Bihar's 19 of 27 cities or towns surveyed in 2017 were ranked beyond 300, with best rank in the state being 147 for Biharsharif. Fifteen of these 27 cities are among the bottom 100.
Rajasthan's 18 of 29 cities or towns surveyed in 2017 are ranked beyond 300 and 13 are among the bottom 100.
Naidu expressed concern over the cleanliness status of cities and towns of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
"I will be vising Uttar Pradesh and Bihar with the officials and hold meeting with the stakeholders concerned of the states to review the cleanliness status," Naidu said.
The minister stressed that the rankings were not announced to point finger at anyone.
"Our objective is to show that where do they stand in cleanliness and what do they need to learn from others," he said.
--IANS
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