Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 20

For the fifth consecutive year, Madhya Pradesh’s Indore was today awarded India’s cleanest city under Centre’s “Swachh Survekshan”. Surat in Gujarat and Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh were adjudged the second and third cleanest city, respectively.

President Ram Nath Kovind felicitated the recipients of awards under Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban 2.0 at a function here. More than 300 awards under various categories were given away by him. Chandigarh has been adjudged best performing union territory in the 'Safaimitra Suraksha Challenge' category.

The ‘Safaimitra Suraksha Challenge’ was launched last year by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs on the occasion of World Toilet Day (November 19) to eradicate human fatalities from hazardous cleaning of sewers and septic tanks.

Indore, Navi Mumbai, Nellore and Dewas emerged as the top performers across different population categories among 246 cities considered for awards under the 'Safaimitra Suraksha Challenge' category. Chhattisgarh bagged the award for the best performing state under this category. In the population category of “less than one lakh”, Vita, Lonavala and Sasvad, all three from Maharashtra, bagged the first, second and third positions, respectively. Varanasi emerged as the ‘Best Ganga Town’, while Ahmedabad Cantonment won the title of ‘India’s Cleanest Cantonment.

Cleanest UT
1 Chandigarh

Cleanest city
1 Indore
2 Surat
3 Vijayawada

Cleanest state
1 Chhattisgarh
2 Maharashtra
3 Madhya Pradesh

Cleanest Ganga town
1 Varanasi
2 Munger
3 Patna

Cantonments
1 Ahmedabad
2 Meerut
3 Delhi