Tamil Nadu loses swachh plot, nocity makes list of cleanest

CHENNAI: In a reversal from recent years, no city from Tamil Nadu has won a notable mention in the Swachh Survekshan 2018 rankings. Even routine top 10 entrants like Trichy were missing from a preliminary list the Centre released on Wednesday.

Indore, Bhopal and Chandigarh took the top three slots among the cleanest cities in the country.

While there was little to cheer the state in the report that minister for housing and urban affairs Hardeep Singh Puri made public in Delhi, St Thomas Mount-Pallavaram cantonment was the lone beneficiary, the local body adjudged to have implemented the most innovative solid waste management practices among cantonments.

An official told TOI that the cantonment utilised hotel waste to generate biogas, which fuelled mid-day meal canteens.

Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC), which produced a dismal ranking in 2017, missed out completely this year, while cities such as Mumbai and Hyderabad posted gains.

The Centre followed a different pattern for its Swachh Survekshan 2018 rankings compared to previous years — it ranked 434 towns and cities in 2017; Chennai came in at a bleak 235 — and assessed no less than 4,023 cities, based on population (more than 10 lakh; 3-10 lakh, 1-3 lakh and less than 1 lakh) and under categories such as cleanest city, fastest mover, best in citizen feedback, innovation and best practices.

The ministry for housing and urban affairs declared Greater Mumbai the cleanest state capital, Telengana's Greater Hyderabad region the best city in solid waste management and Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh the cleanest big city award (for cities with a population of more than 10 lakh).

“It is too early to comment on the rankings. The ministry has not released a full report yet,” said Greater Chennai Corporation deputy commissioner (health) P Madhusudhan Reddy. “We need to study Chennai’s marks in each category to identify gaps in services.”

Residents were less than impressed with Chennai’s

poor show

. Resident Sunil Jayaram said city officials lack “sensitivity” as participants for a competition such as the Swachh rankings. “Our bureaucrats are in ignorance mode,” he said. “Perhaps, if the Swachh competition was localised at the ward level, there would be improvement.”