Unsmart Patna ranked 262nd among 434 cities, in new cleanliness survey
The outcome of the survey, commissioned by the union urban development ministry, appears to pour cold water on Patna’s hopes of winning the ‘smart city’ tag.
PATNA Amidst the Bihar government’s ambitious drive to enable the state’s capital to qualify for the centre’s ‘smart city’ tag, a survey commissioned by the Union ministry of urban development, has placed Patna at the 262nd position, out of 434 cities, raising a question mark on its ongoing cleanliness campaign.
As per the data featured in the ‘Swachh Survekshan 2017’ report, Patna, with 880 points out of 2,000, is way behind the 146th ranked Biharsharif (1117 points) in Nalanda, the home district of chief minister Nitish Kumar. ’
The state capital was ranked 58th and 70th out of 73 cities covered by the survey in 2014 and 2016, respectively. The new survey was conducted in 434 cities with a population of over one lakh, in 2017.
The cities were evaluated on five parameters – waste collection, solid-waste management, construction of toilets, sanitation strategies and behavioural change communication.
The rankings are based on the data provided by municipal corporations, independent assessors and feedback from people. In all, 3.7 million people participated in the exercise.
The performance evaluation of the Swachh Survekshan was conducted by Quality Council of India (QCI), an autonomous body established by the Union government in 1997 for quality assurance in all spheres of activities, including governance.
Nineteen out of 27 cities of Bihar surveyed in 2017 are ranked beyond 300, while 15 are among the bottom 100. Katihar (430 rank) and Bagaha (432) are among bottom 10 cities in the list. These cities were not surveyed in 2016.
Bhagalpur, selected under the smart city mission programme, and Muzaffarpur are ranked 274th and 304th, respectively.
Compared to this, seven cities of neighbouring Jharkhand are ranked between 41 and 117. Jharkhand’s capital Ranchi (117) is way ahead of Patna, while Chas, near Bokaro, is ranked 41.
The survey presents a dismal scenario vis-à-vis cleanliness as in only 15 out of 27 Bihar cities the door-to-door waste collection is more than 80% while there are only 11 cities where more than 75% of all notified areas undertake sweeping twice a day.
With the government emphasising on making state defecation free through its seven resolves, only two out of 27 cities surveyed have more than 75% wards declared ODF as per the municipal self-declaration.
STRAP
Swachh Survekshan 2017 Biharsharif ranked highest in Bihar at 146th; state capital gets a dismal 800 points out of 2000
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