Mysuru emerges as the third cleanest city in India in the Swachh Survekshan 2019 after topping the charts for the two consecutive years in 2014 and 2015. Other than Mysuru, no other Karnataka city among a total of 26 managed to make it to the top 100.
“This year’s achievement is entirely dedicated to the citizens of Mysuru, as it is only because of their participation that we have managed to score the third rank nationally,” Dr TC Poornima, Deputy Director, Directorate of Field Publicity, told NDTV. Other than being the third cleanest city, Mysuru was also given the tag of Open Defecation Free Plus after surveyors found no person defecating or urinating in the open.
Mysuru secured a point of 4378.5 out of a possible 5000, while Mangaluru emerged as the second cleanest city in the state with a rank of 165 and a score of 2518.5. Garden city Bengaluru improved its ranking by a small margin to 194 compared to last year's 216th position.
“We will analyse the break up in detail and prepare a roadmap for the present year to improve further. A number of new initiatives are already set for implementation this year,” BBMP Commissioner N Manjunath Prasad told TOI.
Mysuru ranked below Indore in Madhya Pradesh and Ambikapur in Chhattisgarh, which were adjudged the cleanest and second cleanest cities respectively, according to the survey. Incidentally, topping the survey in 2019 as well, Indore completed its hattrick of being the cleanest city in India. Among state capitals, Bhopal was found to be the cleanest.
Karnataka secured the 14th place, compared to neighbouring states Andhra Pradesh (6), Telangana (8) and Tamil Nadu (12). Kerala secured the 21st spot.
The Swachh Survekshan was carried over a period of 28 days and testing y 4,800 assessors in 6.54 locations across the country.