Udaipur made it to the Top-100 in the Swachhta ranking issued by Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. Udaipur was ranked at 85th position this year, a jump of 225 positions from last year’s ranking of 310. Udaipur was the second best ranked in Rajasthan after Jaipur (39th rank).

Swachh Survekshan 2018, India’s largest ever cleanliness survey covered 485 cities. “Objectives of the survey is to encourage citizen participation, increase city capacity for sustainable ODF and sanitation measures and to create awareness amonst all sections of the society about importance of collective action to contribute in India’s journey towards a Swachh Bharat”, note Durga Shankar Mishra, Secretary, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.

It may be noted that Indore was ranked as India’s cleanest city in this survey followed by Bhopal and Chandigarh. Indore topped the survey with an overall score of 3707.01. Total marks in the survey was 4000.

Udaipur was ranked 85th with a overall score of 2622.89. The break-up of Udaipur’s performance is as follows:

• Service Level Progress: 564 marks (Max Marks: 1400)
• Direct Observation: 940.42 marks (Max Marks: 1200)
• Citizen Feedback: 118.47 marks (Max Marks: 1400)

Team from Udaipur Municipal Corporation needs to be appreciated for this huge jump as a lot of positive steps have been taken in the cleanliness direction since last ranking. Some of the notable achievements include:

• City was declared Open Defecation Free
• Door to door garbage collection
• Solid waste management
• Driving awareness and usage of Swachhta App
• Ensuring Citizen participation in the process
• Better presentation of the work undertaken for cleanliness
• Increase in number of Tippers
• Biometric attendance of cleaning staff

There was a huge wave of happiness and relief amonst the UMC workers after rankings were released. A visibly pleased Chandra Singh Kothari, Mayor congratulated all UMC workers and ward councillors on the improved ranking. UMC Commissioner Siddharth Sihag, currently on training at Mussori received congratulatory messages from all around for a thoroughly improved performance.

Target for next survey should be a Top-10 finish.