Swachh Survekshan City moves up from 124th to 86th But, ‘zero’ in garbage free city category
   Date :12-Jan-2024
Swachh Survekshan  
 
 
 
 
 
By Kaushik Bhattacharya
 
Despite the absence of scientific treatment and zero recycling of solid waste, Nagpur city has improved its ‘Swachh Survekshan 2023’ ranking this year by 38 places -- from 124th position last year to 86th this year. Though the civic body recently inaugurated the solid waste treatment plant in city, Nagpur got ‘zero’ marks in Garbage Free City (GFC) category this year. Hopefully, after proper functioning of the plant, city will get marks in GFC category on next year survey. Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India, on Thursday, released the rankings in which Nagpur city scored 6,163.80 out of 9,500 marks in the category of one-lakh-plus-population cities. Last year, it got 4,171.92 marks out of 7,500 in the category of cities with million-plus population. This year, the Government has merged the one-lakh-plus cities category and million-plus cities. This year, Nagpur got 86th rank in the list of 446 cities. The rank was 124th last year in the list of 427 cities. This year, Nagpur got 64.88 per cent in the survey whereas last year it was 55.63 per cent. With 9.26 per cent increase in Swachh ranking, Nagpur city highest certification in the category of Open Defecation Free (ODF) Plus this year. Out of 1,125 marks, city got full marks in ODF++ category. Nagpur got Water++ certification this year which is a biggest achievement for the city. In 2022, Nagpur scored ‘zero’ marks in Water++ ranking due to not mentioning the sewage treatment project during the ‘Swachh Survekshan’ inspection.
 
Nagpur is the only city in the country earning money by selling treated water from last few years. Under Water++ category, city must have to treat its sewage and reuse it. Nagpur city is practising it from last few years and still Nagpur got zero marks last year. Whereas, rectifying their mistake, NMC mentioned the project in the report and as a result city got the Water++ certification this year which is a major reason behind improvement of percentage in 2023. The primary goal of ‘Swachh Survekshan’ was to encourage large-scale citizen participation and create awareness amongst all sections of society about the importance of working together towards making towns and cities better places to reside in. This year, which is the eighth year of the survey, a total of 3,000 assessors conducted the assessment of more than 4,500 cities across 46 indicators. Though the civic body recently inaugurated the solid waste treatment plant in city, Nagpur got ‘zero’ marks in Garbage Free City (GFC) category this year. Hopefully, after proper functioning of the plant, city will get marks in GFC category on next year survey.
 
The total score was divided in three categories -- Service Level Progress, Citizen Voice, and Certification. In Service Level Progress, Nagpur got 3,260.66 marks out of 4,830; In Citizen Voice category, city bagged 1,778.14 marks out of 2,170; and in Certification, it got 1,125 marks out of 2,500. Out of 44 cities of Maharashtra, Nagpur got 17th rank. Last year it was 8th rank out of 10 cities in million-plus category. “Nagpur has done well, a progressive jump of 38 steps in category of cities with more than one lakh population and overall 9.26% more scoring percentage shows efforts taken by all,” Kaustav Chatterjee, Brand Ambassador, Swachh Bharat Mission for Nagpur and Founder, Green Vigil Foundation told The Hitavada. “Nagpur should have got Water++ long back as very few cities recycle around 320 MLD sewage as Nagpur does. However, not having Solid waste treatment plant again caused the damage in ranking for us. Hopefully, if all goes well, bhomipujan has been already done, we will have solid waste treatment plant by next year,” he added.