Indore, Surat, and Navi Mumbai named India's top 3 cleanest cities

Indore (Madhya Pradesh), Surat (Gujarat), and Navi Mumbai (Maharashtra) have been named as India's top three cleanest cities with over one lakh population. Indore bagged the honour for the sixth time in a row.

Panchgani (Maharashtra), Patan (Chhattisgarh), and Karhad (Maharashtra) were named the top three cleanest cities with less than one lakh population in the Centre's annual cleanliness survey Swachh Survekshan 2022.

In the category of best performing states in the Swachh Survekshan Awards 2022, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, and Maharashtra bagged the top three spots. Ahmedabad in Gujarat received the award for 'Cleanest Mega City' and New Delhi bagged the award for 'Clean Small City'.

President Droupadi Murmu presented the honours to winning cities and urban local bodies at an event in Delhi. It was attended by Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri.

Puri said Swachh Survekshan is the largest urban sanitation survey in the world. "What began in 2016 as a pilot among 73 cities has grown into a massive exercise with the 2022 edition covering 4,355 cities. The spirit of healthy competitive federalism is in full display. Urban local bodies (ULBs) have competed vigorously to improve their rankings on various Swachhata parameters."

The second phase of SBM has a bigger ambition in which no less than holistic cleanliness will suffice. Puri added that Indian cities will become garbage free by the end of SBM(U) 2.0. Safaimitra Suraksha is part of this year's programme and it will be focused on the well-being and safety of safarimitras.