Vijayawada makes it to top in Swachh Survekshan

Vijayawada: Vijayawada city ranked fourth in the country in the Swachh Survekshan 2020 ranks announced by the Union government on Thursday. Swachh Survekshan is an annual survey of cleanliness, hygiene and sanitation in cities and the towns across India conducted by Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.

The Swachh Survekshan 2020 took place from April 2019 to January 2020. Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) under the guidance and supervision of municipal commissioner Prasanna Venkatesh is implementing many programmes for the cleanliness and improvement of sanitation in the city. The civic body is strictly implementing rules to make city free from single use plastic getting good results for more than a year.

Indore city of Madhya Pradesh ranked first, Surat city of Gujarat, Navi Mumbai of Maharashtra and Vijayawada got the second, third and fourth places respectively in the category of more than 10 lakh population.

District collector, Md Imtiaz, who is the special officer of the VMC, congratulated the staff on achieving the fourth rank in the country. Swacha Andhra Corporation Managing Director Dr P Sampath Kumar expressed happiness over Vijayawada city securing fourth place and Vizag ninth place in the country.

Interestingly, the Andhra Pradesh has been ranked sixth at national level for its efforts and performance. Municipal commissioner Prasanna Venkatesh said he would try to achieve the first place next year with the collective efforts and the support of the state government, employees and sanitation workers.

The key components of Swachh Survekshan are service level progress, direct observation, certification and citizen feedback and all have 1,500 marks each. The awards ceremony was conducted online on Thursday due to Covid-19. VMC has improved its ranking by eight places and it got 12th place in 2019 and now reached to fourth place.