INDORE, Jan 11
Indore bagged the title of the cleanest city of India for a record seventh time in a row in the Union government’s ‘Swachch Sarvekshan Awards – 2023’ announced on Thursday.
The Madhya Pradesh city has been winning the coveted prize every year since the government of India launched the Annual Cleanliness Survey awards as part of the ‘Swachch Bharat Mission’ in 2016. Along with Indore, Surat has been adjudged joint-winner in the cleanest city category. The Mhow Cantonment near Indore in MP won the first prize in the category of the cleanest Cantonment Board in the country. Madhya Pradesh has also scored the second position as the best performing state in cleanliness drive while the state capital Bhopal scored fifth position in the cleanest city category. MP Chief Minister Dr Mohan Yadav, Urban Administration Minister Kailash Vijaywargiya, Minister of State for Urban Administration Pratima Bagri and state government officials received the awards from President Droupadi Murmu at a function held in New Delhi on Thursday.
Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri and other dignitaries also attended the function.
According to information, the 2023 awards covered 4,416 urban local bodies, 61 cantonments and 88 Ganga towns. According to the Union Urban Affairs Ministry, 1.58 crore online citizen feedback and 19.82 lakh face-to-face views were received as a part of the ranking exercise.
The 2023 survey was based on the theme, ‘waste to wealth’. According to officials of the Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC), a sustainable system of garbage collection, processing and disposal has been developed in Indore. Officials pointed out that the waste from 4.65 lakh households and 70,543 commercial establishments in Indore is systematically sorted at the primary source and processed and disposed of at different plants in the city.
IMC officials said that nearly 692 tons of wet waste, 683 tons of dry waste and 179 tons of plastic waste is collected every day in the city under different categories.
