Rajkot 6th cleanest; alsobest self-sustainable city

SLUG: Swachh Survekshan 2020
The Diamond City saw a sparkling improvement in its cleanliness ranking, becoming India’s second cleanest city after Indore, in the latest Swachh Survekshan (sanitation survey) released by the Union housing and urban affairs ministry on Friday.
Surat improved from a distant 14 last year to number 2 and officials attributed this boost maintly to capping of Khajod landfill site which has now been converted into sprawling green land mass.
Rajkot not just improved its cleanliness ranking from nine to six, but also got the national award for '10 best self-sustainable cities' in the population of 10 lakh to 40 lakh. Municipal commissioner Udit Agarwal said the award is a recognition of several green initiatives that were taken to reduce the carbon footprint.
“The green initiatives are particularly important for Rajkot as it is the commercial capital of Saurashtra,” added Agarwal. RMC has achieved 100% in solid waste disposal through house-to-house collection and building as many as 102 public and community toilets.
Ahmedabad has ranked as the cleanest city in India for the second consecutive time among 40 lakh plus cities beating the country’s four metros and other megacities. The city, however, got just a three-star rating in the category of 'garbage-free city', while Surat and Rajkot were both rated as five stars. However, when in the cities with a population of 10 lakh or above, Ahmedabad ranks fifth.
Between 1 lakh and 10 lakh population, Gandhinagar ranks eighth cleanest city in the country.
Vadodara too showed a remarkable improvement from a miserable 78th place last year to the 10th place now . After being ranked 13 in 2016, there was a continuous downslide. Officials attributed the bad performance in 2019 to documentation issues by the civic body, which was systematically ironed out this year as well as novel recycling projects that have been taken up.