Gurugram achieves highest ever ranking in Swachh Survekshan

The city secured a ranking of 24 in the Swachh Survekshan 2021 -- its highest ever ranking since the central government’s survey commenced in 2015 -- in the category of cities with a population between 100,000 and a million.

A total of 425 cities in the category were covered in the annual survey this year, the results of which were announced on Saturday.

Gurugram scored 4201.19 points out of 6,000 in the 2021 survey. Its score was also the highest in Haryana. With a score of 3821.52, Rohtak has the second-highest rating in the state and finished with a rank of 49 in the same category of cities.

Gurugram ranked 62 last year in the cleanliness survey, while the city’s last best performance was in 2016 when it got a ranking of 36.

The cleanliness survey this year looked at three broad parameters – citizens’ feedback, service level progress in terms of provision of services to citizens, and certifications. Of the 6,000 points, 2,400 were reserved for the service level progress category, and 1,800 points each were for the citizens’ voice and certifications categories, respectively.

In the citizens’ voice category, Gurugram had a score of 1410.51, while it got 1690.68 in service level progress and 1,100 in the certification categories.

In an official release issued by the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG), mayor Madhu Azad and MCG commissioner Mukesh Kumar Ahuja jointly attributed the better performance in the survey to the cooperation and contribution of the citizens.

“The mayor and commissioner said that Gurugram will perform even better in the Swachh Survekshan 2022. All citizens should keep giving their cooperation this way and always segregate their waste and not spread garbage. They should throw waste only in the garbage pickup vehicle, adopt home composting and follow the three principles of waste reduce, reuse and recycle,” said the release.

The city also bagged a three-star rating in the ‘Garbage Free City’ (GFC) category. Under the GFC category, a city is ranked out of seven stars depending on the efficiency of its waste management system and its resources. There are 25 key parameters on which each city is assessed, such as door-to-door collection of waste, sweeping, storage bins, plastic ban, and C&D waste collection.

Overall, nine cities in the country got a five-star rating in the GFC category, 143 received three-star, and 147 got one-star rating.

However, Vaishali Rana, a Gurugram-based environmentalist, was critical of the city’s performance in the annual cleanliness survey. “Every sector and municipal ward has a mini landfill in Gurugram. The MCG is yet to find an alternative site for dumping the waste. Segregation is practically negligible. On ground, there has been little to no change compared to last year,” said Rana.

On November 15 when it was confirmed that Gurugram will get a GFC rating in the 2021 survey, the MCG in its official release had attributed introduction of zero-waste days, special campaigns to prevent usage of polythene and plastic, and introduction of cloth bag banks as the factors for the city’s betterment in waste management.

In December last year, the civic body had introduced zero-waste day where once a week only wet waste was lifted from households so that segregation of waste can be inculcated among residents of the city. Starting November 11 this year, the corporation has made it mandatory for residents to segregate garbage into dry and wet waste.

The MCG also announced a penalty as high as ₹25,000 against the use of plastic or polythene in February.