For the second straight year, Karnataka’s Mysuru has been found to be the cleanest city in a nationwide survey conducted by the Urban Development (UD) ministry.

 The two other southern cities making the top five are Tiruchirapalli and Visakhapatnam. Tiruchirappalli was in the top five last year too.

However, Bengaluru and Kochi which were in the top five last year failed to make it to the top five this time round.

 Quite surprisingly, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s constituency Varanasi was one of the lower-ranked cities.

 The ranking was done based on parameters like sanitation and cleanliness. 

 In 2015, the parameters included extent of open defecation, solid waste management, sewage management, wastewater treatment, drinking water quality, surface water quality of water bodies and mortality due to water-borne diseases.

 PM Modi introduced the government’s flagship Swachh Bharat Mission, which is aimed at making the country clean and open-defecation free, by 2019.