Surat is second cleanest city in country

Surat: The Diamond City has been declared as the second cleanest city consecutively for the third year. The Swachh Survekshan - 2022 results were announced on Saturday in New Delhi.
Surat mayor Hemali Boghawala and municipal commissioner Banchha Nidhi Pani received the award at Talkatora Stadium in Delhi.
Surat is the second cleanest city after Indore. Surat scored 6,925 marks out of 7,500 while Indore scored 7,146 marks. “Surat is among 4,354 cities with a population of over 1 lakh. But it is first among cities with over 40 lakh population,” Pani told TOI.
The city scored 2,704 marks out of 3,000 in service level progress; 2,050 out of 2,250 in certification; and 2,171 in citizen’s voice. Surat scored full marks 1,000 in the criterion of open defecation free city.
In 2018-19, Surat was on 14th rank but jumped to second rank in 2020.
“Surat can improve on segregation at source, wet waste processing and disposal of waste at a society level. The score can further improve on these grounds,” said Pani, adding that the city is the only city which worked exceptionally well in solid and liquid waste management. We are the only big city that worked and scored well in both the areas.”
Senior SMC officials claim that to perform second best consecutively for three years while being a city of over 40 lakh population is an achievement. “It is comparatively not that difficult to carry out the civic services in smaller cities. But in a city like Surat that is growing fast, it is challenging. Though we are setting standards for others to follow,” said a senior official.
Surat has developed an ecological site at Khajod where waste disposal is made and it has been ranked as a significant change. It has removed waste collection containers and improved quality of ‘pay and use’ toilets .