Swachh Survekshan Awards 2023:
Surat and Indore were jointly adjudged India’s cleanest cities as per the Centre’s annual Swachh Survekshan city cleanliness rankings for 2023.
- Navi Mumbai secured third place.
- The Union Housing Ministry confers the Swachh Sarvekshan cleanliness awards, initiated under the Swachh Bharat Mission. Key ranking parameters include:
- Citizen feedback evaluations
- Field assessments of sanitation indicators
- The state governments provide updated data, validated via household surveys and on-ground visits. Additional factors like safety gear for waste workers also get incorporated.
- The yearly surveying initiative started with assessing 73 major cities in 2016. Currently over 4,400 towns participate.
- Around 12 crore citizen feedbacks were incorporated this round.
- The 2023 updated list of top ten cleanest cities above 1 lakh population also features Visakhapatnam, Bhopal, Vijayawada, Delhi, Tirupati, Hyderabad and Pune.
Statewise and Category Winners:
- Maharashtra topped the state ranks, followed by Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. Smaller cities Sasvad, Lonavala and Patan secured the top three cleanliness positions.
- Mhow Cantonment Board was rated the cleanest cantonment.
- Varanasi and Prayagraj won top Ganga town awards.
- Chandigarh was honored as the safest city for sanitation staff. West Bengal municipalities ranked last across all zones.
