Vizag falls behind in Swachh Rankings. GVMC vows to do better

Vizag’s spot Swachh Bharat 2018 rankings: In a disappointing news to the denizens of the city, Vizag slipped down from its previous rank in the recently revealed Swachh Survekshan rankings. Given the city’s meritorious performance in the rankings last time around, the recent rank has come as a bit of a shocker to the officials here. Indore, Bhopal, and Chandigarh emerged as the top 3 cleanest cities of India. Vizag stood as the 7th cleanest city among the 4203 cities surveyed in the country.

In the survey, the GVMC has been awarded 3546.5 points out of 4000. While Vizag has been recording impressive performance over the last three years, the recent slump has made the GVMC vow to do better. GVMC commissioner M Hari Narayanan said the authorities would work harder and hope for the best.

The past one year saw the GVMC officials take up multiple initiatives and programmes to make Vizag cleaner and create awareness among the citizens. The civic body put into action an aggressive campaign that saw the Swachhta mission promoted through various ads as well. Reportedly, close to 1,60,000 individuals from the city participated in the survey this year.

While Vizag stood 205th in the ranking announced in 2015, it took major strides eventually to stand 5th and 3rd in the 2016 and 2017 rankings respectively.

Swachh Bharat was a mission flagged off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with an aim of promoting cleanliness and hygiene in the country. Swacch Survekshan is a survey conducted every year which assesses the feedback of the citizens and concerned authorities to declare India’s cleanest city.