Swachh survey: Population category changed, Ghaziabad at 38th spot among 446 cities

While officials of the Ghaziabad municipal corporation said the ranking of the city has lowered as compared to the previous year, it is to be noted that the city this year was grouped under a category of cities with a population of 1 100,000 or more, while in previous years, it was grouped under cities having a population between 1 to 4 million (10 lakh-40 lakh)

The results of Union ministry of housing and urban affairs (MoHUA)’s cleanliness survey Swachh Survekshan 2023 (SS 2023) were declared on Thursday and Ghaziabad city came in 38th among 446 cities in the country, having a population of 100,000 or more.

Road dust flies thick on Loha Mandi road on Thursday, a day when Ghaziabad city was judged the 38th cleanest among 446 cities in the country, in Swachh Survekshan 2023. (Sakib Ali/HT Photo)

The city stood second in Uttar Pradesh -- after Noida and Gajraula --according to survey results. Noida, with a population of 637,272 as per 2011 Census, secured the 14th spot in the national ranking under the same population category and was also judged the cleanest city in Uttar Pradesh, along with Gajraula.

While officials of the Ghaziabad municipal corporation said the ranking of the city has lowered as compared to the previous year, it is to be noted that the city this year was grouped under a category of cities with a population of 1 100,000 or more, while in previous years, it was grouped under cities having a population between 1 to 4 million (10 lakh-40 lakh).

“The population criteria has changed this year and this has allowed smaller cities with a much lesser population to move ahead in the rankings. We have the 38th rank among cities having a population of 100,000 or more. In the state, we have secured top position among all 17 municipal corporations. Noida is not a corporation but an industrial authority,” said Vikramaditya Malik, Ghaziabad municipal commissioner.

According to the survey, the municipal corporation has a population of 1,648,643 as per the 2011 Census.

“If we recompute the rankings as per the previous year’s category of 1 to 4 million population, the corporation has secured the 19th spot this year,” said Mithilesh Kumar, city health officer of the corporation.

The city in the 2022 Swachh Survekshan secured the 12th rank in the category of cities having a population between 1 to 4 million. The city in the 2021 edition secured the 18th rank under the category. In the 2020 survey, the city secured the 19th position while in 2019 it secured the 13th rank.

According to the SS-2023 results, Ghaziabad city secured 100% for cleanliness of water bodies and cleanliness of public toilets.

It also secured 99% for door-to-door collection of solid waste, cleanliness of residential area and cleanliness of market areas while it secured 98% for source segregation of solid waste and only 70% for waste generation vs processing activities.

The city performed dismally on remediation of its solid waste dumps, and secured zero points.

“We have a dumpsite in Morta where we had about 600,000 metric tonnes of solid waste and now only 70,000 metric tonnes is left to be remediated by May 2024. This site has also been inspected by an oversight committee of the National Green Tribunal. So, it cannot be said that remediation has not taken place. We can also raise a query about the zero score,” Malik added.

Under the SS-2023, the cities competed for a maximum of 9,500 marks which included 4,830 for service level progress, 2,500 for certifications and 2,170 for citizens’ voice. The total marks for the three categories was 7,500 in SS-2022.

Recently in January, the Ghaziabad municipal corporation also achieved open defecation free++ (ODF++) certification and three-star rating for Garbage Free Cities (GFC) for certifications applied in 2023 and surveys conducted by the ministry of housing and urban affairs.

Apart from the corporation, Ghaziabad district has eight other local bodies.

Of these, the nagar palika of Loni secured a national ranking of 232 while nagar palika of Modinagar stood at the 231st spot under the same population category.

On the other hand, nagar palika of Khoda secured 779th rank and nagar palika of Muradnagar secured 1,676th rank while four nagar panchayats of Dasna, Faridnagar, Patla and Niwari stood at 1,411, 1,739, 1,955 and 2,396 spots, respectively, among cities having population less than 100,000.