Mumbai is India’s 37th cleanest city

Mumbai scored zero in garbage-free status despite having applied for a five-star ranking this year. File pic/Anurag Ahire

Its poor performance in open defecation-free status and zero marks in garbage-free status are the major factors for Mumbai's position in the Swachh Survekshan awards 2021. The city ranked 37th among 48 cities with a population of more than 10 lakh. Navi Mumbai and Thane grabbed the fourth and 14th positions respectively. Vasai Virar is in the 29th position.

The results of the Clean Survey 2021 or Swachh Survekshan conducted by the Central Government's Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs were announced on Saturday.

Though it received a prize in the category of solid waste management - ‘Innovation and best practices in big cities' - Mumbai scored zero in garbage-free status despite having applied for a five-star ranking this year. Even last year, the city did not get any marks out of 1,100 for a garbage-free status (GFS). Despite spending crores of rupees on cleanliness like solid waste management, nullah cleaning, etc. the city hasn't improved its ranking. It scored 300 out of 700 marks in open defecation free (ODF) status. Navi Mumbai scored 1,600 (out of 1,800) and
Thane scored 1,100 (out of 1,800) in this category.

Last year, the city was in the 35th position with almost the same score in ODF and garbage-free status. In 2019, the city slipped to the 49th position.

"The city gets zero stars in the garbage-free city category despite having applied for five-star rating. Either you get three, five, seven-star status or zero marks. The city lost 1,100 marks at one go and that changed the equation," said an official from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

Indore cleanest city

Navi Mumbai ranked fourth with a total score of 5,308 and Thane ranked 14th with a score of 4,534. Mumbai scored 3,268. Navi Mumbai has bagged a fourth place in India's fourth cleanest city list. Indore has once again bagged the award for being India's cleanest city for the 5th consecutive year.

Swachh Survekshan is an annual survey of cleanliness, hygiene and sanitation in cities and towns across India. It was launched as part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, which aimed to make India clean and free of open defecation.