Secunderabad Cant fares worst in Swachh Survekshan League

Hyderabad: Swachh Survekshan League rankings show that Secunderabad has scored least among the 61 cantonments in India. Union Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri released the results of a quarter each from 2017 and 2018 on December 31. Among city with more than 10 lakh population, Hyderabad was ranked 29 and 33 in Quarter 1 and Quarter 2, respectively.

In Quarter 1 results, Andhra Pradesh’s Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada secured 19 and 20 positions respectively for cleanliness among cities with a population of more than 10 lakh. In Quarter 2 results, Visakhapatnam secured 18th position among cities with a population more than 10 lakh. Among cities with 1-10 lakh population, Ongole ranked eights.

Indore bagged the title of being the cleanest city for the fourth time, followed by Rajkot of Gujarat. The other cities in the top five are Navi Mumbai, Vadodara and Bhopal.

Among cantonments, Delhi ranked top in terms of cleanliness followed by Jhansi, Jalandhar, Mathura and Pune cantonments. In the overall ranking, Bihar’s Sursand ranked the worst.

While releasing the results, Hardeep Singh Puri said that SSL 2020 would start on January 4. The Centre introduced Swachh Survekshan five years back to ensure that municipal bodies come up with initiatives to maintain sanitation in their locality.

While speaking to NewsMeter, Vice President of Secunderabad Cantonment Board J Ramakrishna cited lack of funds as a possible reason for the poor ranking. “The reasons why Secunderabad didn’t fare well could be because of lack of funds and proper machinery for sanitation works. One more important thing is our cantonment is more populated compared to most other cantonments. We are yet to review it, after which we will decide the actual cause,” he added.