Panaji cleanest among small cities in country

Panaji: President Droupadi Murmu presented the ‘Swachh Sheher’ award to Panaji at a function organised by the Union ministry of housing and urban affairs in New Delhi on Thursday.

Panaji stood first among small cities in the country with a population of 20,000 to 50,000.

Sanquelim featured in the list of small towns that show promise in being clean, bagging the ninth position at the all-India level and second among all municipalities in Goa. Both the awards were received by urban development minister Vishwajit Rane.

Speaking at the urban development ministers’ meet on the sidelines of the award function, Rane shared Goa’s hybrid approach to waste management through Goa Waste Management Corporation and public-private participation.

“With digital innovation, decentralised systems, and energy-efficient waste processing, we aim to make Goa a model state for responsible and futuristic urban development,” said Rane

“With a strong institutional framework led by GWMC and continuous support from state govt, Goa is steadily progressing toward zero-waste cities by 2027.”

In comparison to Panaji and Sanquelim, Mormugao stood third among all the towns in Goa, followed by Ponda and Margao in the fifth position. Sanguem fared poorly among Goan towns, scoring zero for waste processing, remediation of dump sites, cleanliness of water bodies, and public toilets.

“Goa is redefining urban sanitation through technology-driven governance and citizen-centric policies — from QR-coded waste tracking in Panaji and Bicholim to 100% door-to-door waste collection across all urban local bodies,” said Rane.

Speaking at the award ceremony, Murmu said that Swachh Survekshan has proven to be a successful experiment in assessing and encouraging the efforts made by cities towards cleanliness. The cleanliness survey was conducted by the ministry of housing and urban affairs for the year 2024, with participation from various stakeholders, state govts, urban bodies, and approximately 14 crore citizens.

Nationally, Indore, Surat, and Navi Mumbai entered the premier Super Swachh League, with Indore continuing its reign as the cleanest city in the country. The new generation of clean cities were Ahmedabad, Bhopal, and Lucknow, which emerged as the top ‘Swachh Shehar’ or clean cities.

Following the ‘One City, One Award’ principle, the ministry of housing and urban affairs recognised the top-performing cities from each state as Promising Swachh Shehars.