(file photo)
Speed Post News Network
New Delhi : Prime Minister Narendra Modi will announce the results of Swachh Survekshan (SS) 2020, at 11 am on August 20, 2020. This is the fifth edition of the annual cleanliness survey of the country. A total of 129 awards will be handed over to the top performing cities and states at an event,“Swachh Mahotsav”. The Prime Minister will also be interacting with select beneficiaries, swachhagrahis, and SafaiKarmis under the Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban (SBM-U), from different parts of the country through video conference. The PM shall launch the Swachh Survekshan 2020 results dashboard on the occasion.
Swachh Survekshan 2020 is the World’s largest cleanliness survey which ranked a total of 4,242 cities, 62 Cantonment Boards, and 92 Ganga Towns and saw an unprecedented participation of 1.87 crore citizens. The event is being organised by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), Government of India. Swachh Survekshan was introduced by the the objective of generating largescale citizen participation in the Mission along with inculcating a spirit of healthy competition among cities towards becoming India’s cleanest cities.
MoHUA had conducted Swachh Survekshan 2016 survey for rating 73 major cities in January 2016, followed by Swachh Survekshan 2017 conducted in January-February 2017 for ranking 434 cities. Swachh Survekshan 2018, which, ranked 4,203 cities, followed by SS 2019 which not only covered 4,237 cities but was also the first-of-its-kind completely digital survey completed in a record time of 28 days, according to a PIB release.
In Swachh Survekshan 2020, in order to ensure continuous assessment and sustainability of on-ground performance of cities, the Government had also introduced Swachh Survekshan League, a quarterly cleanliness assessment of cities and towns conducted across three quarters, with 25% weightage integrated into the final Swachh Survekshan results for this year.
Swachh Survekshan has today made ‘Swachhata’ a thing of motivation and pride – something to look forward to and aspire for. While Mysuru had won the award for the Cleanest City of India in the first edition of the survey, Indore has retained the top position for three consecutive years (2017,2018, 2019). The results to be announced on August 20, 2020, will bring the curtains down on the much-anticipated results for the 2020 edition which were delayed owing to the COVID pandemic.
Swachh Survekshan 2020, which was completed in 28 days, had several highlights, key amongst them are:
- 1.7 crore citizens registered on Swachhata App
- Over 11 crore impressions on social media
- Over 5.5 lakh sanitary workers linked to social welfare schemes and over 84,000 informal waste pickers integrated into the mainstream
- Over 21,000 Garbage Vulnerable Points identified and transformed
Another feature of the event will be the bringing together and felicitation of MoHUA’s partner organisations in the SBM-U journey, including United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), Google, etc.
Since its launch in 2014, Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban (SBM-U) has made significant progress in the area of both sanitation and solid waste management. A total of 4,324 Urban ULBs have been declared ODF, 1,319 cities certified ODF+ and 489 cities certified ODF++ as per MoHUA’s sanitation protocols. This has been made possible through construction of more than 66 lakh individual household toilets and over 6 lakh community/ public toilets, far exceeding the Mission’s targets.