ProMASS News Bureau: Feb 15, 2016:
The government today said that 400 cities in the country will achieve full open defecation free status by the end of December this year. Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu announced this during the Swachh Survekshan 2016 award function in New Delhi.
Mr Naidu said, out of the 400 cities, the maximum 79 cities are in Gujarat followed by 68 in Madhya Pradesh, 66 in Andhra Pradesh and 60 in Maharashtra. Mysuru tops the list of clean cities in the survey, Dhanbad ranks the lowest.
AIR correspondent reports that Mr Venkaiah Naidu also announced the Swachh Survekshan results of 73 major cities in the country. Of 73 cities which were surveyed for sanitation ranking, Mysuru of Karnataka topped the list of clean cities. Chandigarh got the second position, Tiruchirapalli 3rd, New Delhi Municpal Council 4th and Visakhapatnam 5th. Surat was ranked 6th, Rajkot 7th, Gangtok 8th while Pimpri-Chindwad ranked 9th and Greater Mumbai got 10th position.
The survey was conducted to measure the impact of efforts under Swachh Bharat Mission for construction of toilets, solid waste management and service delivery level. The results are expected to go a long way in promoting the spirit of healthy competition among the cities about cleanliness.
Under the Swachh Bharat Mission, the government has set a target of constructing over one crore individual household toilets and over 2.5 lakh community toilet seats by 2nd October, 2019.
