A record 16 Swachh awards for Telangana

HYDERABAD:  As many as 16 civic bodies in Telangana have bagged the prestigious Swachh Survekshan 2022 awards. Winners will be felicitated during the Swachh Amrit Mahotsav event, scheduled to be held in New Delhi on October 1. Instituted by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), Swachh Survekshan is a yearly survey of cleanliness, hygiene and sanitation in cities and towns across India.

Last year, the State bagged 12 awards. This year’s winners from Telangana are: Secunderabad Cantonment Board, Adibatla, Badangpet, Bhootpur, Chandur, Chityal, Gajwel, Ghatkesar, Husnabad, Kompally, Korutla, Kothapally, Neredcherla, Siricilla, Turkyamjal and Vemulawada.

Minister for Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MAUD) KT Rama Rao congratulated the winners and said that several programmes were taken up for the improvement of cities under the direction of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao.

“The achievement was possible because of the CM’s vision for all-round development of urban local bodies (ULBs) in the State,” he said.The Minister credited programmes such as the Pattana Pragathi and the introduction of laws such as the new Municipal Act for the development of cities and towns. Bagging a record number of awards for consecutive years is a testament to Telangana’s commitment to all-round development, the Minister added.

MoHUA conducted national-level sanitation challenges such as Swachh Survekshan and Garbage Free City (GFC) Star Rating for the period of July 2021 to January 2022.These were aimed at overall sanitation, municipal solid waste management and enhanced citizen awareness across all 4,355 cities and towns in the country.

Jolt to the GHMC
While several ULBs in the State managed to win, it was a big jolt to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), which had bagged the ‘Best Self Sustainable Mega City’ in the category of more than 40 lakh population last year. However, Hyderabad had also received the ‘’Water Plus City’’ certification in the past year.

This certification is given to cities that achieve safe and sustainable sanitation by ensuring that no untreated wastewater is discharged into water bodies, ensuring an adequate capacity of sewage treatment facilities apart from using treated and recycled water. Out of 142 ULBs in the State, MoHUA has declared 70 ULBs as ODF+, 40 as ODF++, Hyderabad as Water Plus and the remaining 31 ULBs as ODF.