CSE Identified Mysore, Alappuzha, and Panaji as Cleanest Cities in India

BENGALURU: The Swach Bharat Abhiyan initiated in efforts to maintain cleanliness has already been so popular in India. People from every nook and corner of India are trying to inculcate ‘Swach’ habits to maintain cleanliness. As a result, every city is in race to be crowned as the cleanest city of India. Similarly, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) carried out a survey to locate clean cities in India; source Businessinsider.in.  

CSE undertook ‘Not in my backyard’ survey to locate cities embracing solid waste management practices to keep it neat and tidy. As a result, Alappuzha in Kerala, Panaji, and Mysuru emerged out as the cleanest cities in India in CSE’s report. The capital of India, Delhi, is placed at the bottom of the list along with Chandigarh and Bengaluru. The CSE stated that the bottom listed cities try to maintain clean by sweeping their garbage under the carpet in its report. 

Further adding in its report, CSE stated that by 2047, India would be producing waste covering around over 1,400 sq km of landfills with 260 million tonnes of annual waste. And this amount of waste will be enough to cover lands of Hyderabad, Mumbai, and Chennai collectively. "What is absolutely clear to us as we researched for this report is that technology for waste disposal is not the problem. The problem is two-fold. One, households and institutions are not responsible for management, through segregation or payment of the waste they generate. Two, there is an absolute collapse of financial and institutional (human) capacity and so accountability in our municipal systems," said Sunita Narain, Director General, CSE. The CSE further also cleared that the method practiced to calculate waste generated was assumed as per the population of the cities.

The survey included 53 cities having population more than 10 lakhs each and 22 capitals without much population. Top 10 cities in terms of sanitation and hygiene listed Mysuru, Chandigarh, Tiruchirapalli, New Delhi Municipal Council, Visakhapatnam, Surat, Rajkot, Gangtok, Pimpri-Chinchwad and Greater Mumbai in the survey. "We wanted to simply know which city is India's cleanest. We knew that once we found out which is the cleanest; we would also find out what makes it so. This would give us the answers for future policy," Narian added.

Chandra Bhushan, Deputy Director General, CSE further added that, "As India becomes more literate and politically aware; most cities are encountering stiff resistance when they attempt to dispose of waste in somebody else's backyard. In Pune, Bengaluru, Panaji, Alleppey and Gurgaon, village communities have been up in arms against the dumping of waste by a neighboring city. This resistance will continue to grow. Cities are also finding it difficult to secure 'environmental approval' for their landfills."

Read Also:
U.S. To Give Technical Help To India In Constructing Roads, Bridges
Narendra Modi Government Improving India's Quality Of Growth: Crisil