 "In pursuit of swachhness")
Mandi in Himachal Pradesh and Sindhudurg in Maharashtra have emerged the cleanest districts in India according to a report released here by Drinking Water and Sanitation Minister Narendra Singh Tomar.
A total of 22 hill districts and 53 plain areas were assessed under the Gramin Swachh Survekshan launched in May this year. Mandi was judged as the cleanest district in 'Hills' category and Sindhudurg cleanest in the 'Plains' category.
Besides, the districts of Shimla (Himachal Pradesh), Nadia (West Bengal) and Satara (Maharashtra) feature at the top of the index.
The Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation had commissioned Quality Council of India to carry out the assessment.
Each district has been judged on four distinct parameters. Maximum weightage was placed on accessibility to safe toilets and water.
The parameters to judge sanitation status include households having access to safe toilets, households having no litter around, public places with no litter in the surrounding and households having no stagnant waste water.
Tomar congratulated the district administrators, councillors and gram panchayats of all the 75 districts which were assessed for participating in the survey and for giving their feedback.
He also went on to congratulate Mandi and Sindhudurg for leading the Swachh Bharat Mission by example and driving the much needed behavioural change needed in rural society.
The Minister said that this exercise would foster a healthy spirit of competition amongst districts in the race to achieve the cleanest district tag.
