It was a mixed bag for the state as the Swachh Survekshan 2019 rankings were announced by the Union ministry of housing and urban affairs at Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi on Wednesday.

Although Jharkhand slipped to second position in the best performing state category (from first in 2018), nine urban local bodies of the state received awards in various categories this time against six last year.

Chhattisgarh became the best performing state with Maharashtra claiming the third position.

Jamshedpur Notified Area Committee (JNAC) was adjudged best among civic bodies of the state and ranked 15th among 4,237 urban local bodies of the country covered in the survey. Ranchi was declared best among capital cities in terms of citizen feedback.

Indore retained the top position as the cleanest city in India for the third year in a row at Swachh Survekshan 2019.

Rajmahal became the second cleanest city among the Ganga towns (set up alongside Ganges river) trailing behind Gauchar (Uttarakhand). Sahibganj in Jharkhand claimed the third spot.

Phusro was adjudged the best in solid waste management among east zone cities with population between 50,000 and 1 lakh.

Pakur became the cleanest city in east zone in the population range of 25,000-50,000. Chatra was the best city in terms of citizen feedback in east zone with a population between 25,000 and 50,000.

Among east zone cities with a population between 50,000 and 1 lakh, Gumla topped in innovation and best practices while among the east zone urban local bodies in the same population category, Chakradharpur was adjudged best in terms of citizen feedback.

“We will try to improve the functioning of our local bodies based on the results of the pan-India survey. However, it is motivating to get a total of nine awards in different categories compared with six in 2018. All the urban local bodies will be inspired and will perform better in ensuring the sustainability of open defecation free and solid waste management initiatives with active participation of the common people,” state urban development agency director Ameet Kumar said.

Kumar is also the nodal officer for Swachh Bharat Mission in the state and was in Delhi during the prize distribution ceremony.

The Telegraph

Jamshedpur, the home constituency of chief minister Raghubar Das, had a reason to celebrate.

“We had worked hard in our documentation of waste management and tried to make up for the delay in waste-to-energy treatment process by indulging in compost mechanism and biodegradable waste recycling facility at Jusco and undertaking waste segregation at source,” JNAC special officer Krishna Kumar said.

He said the civic body had implemented several innovative measures like using bio-enzymes for cleaning toilets and conducted massive awareness drives that led to a steep rise in citizen participation and download of swachhata app.

“Having said this, we still have room for improvement in segregation of waste at source,” Kumar added.

In the survey, Jamshedpur clocked a score of 3805.72.

Ranchi, which finished 46 compared with 21 in 2018 clocked a score of 3319.31.

Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC) deputy mayor Sanjeev Vijayvargiya admitted that the delay in execution of the waste-to-energy recycling plant at Jhiri was the main reason behind the slide in the city rank.

“The delay in waste-to-energy recycling plant was the main reason for our losing points in service level progress. Fortunately, we could make up in the citizen feedback section because of the massive awareness drive,” Vijayvargiya added

Chief minister Raghubar Das congratulated residents and the officials of urban local bodies for bagging nine awards.

“I would like to congratulate and thank all officials and residents associated with the Swachh Abhiyan. It is through your efforts that the state has achieved new milestones in the cleanliness mission,” he said.