Bhubaneswar ranked 331 in Swachh Bharat rankings of 476 cities

Bhubaneswar, capital of Odisha ranked 331 in the Swachh Bharat rankings of 476 cities in the country.

When Bhubaneswar is vying for a Smart City tag, it received a major jolt when a recent Union Urban Development Ministry report showed the city ranked 25th among the 28 state capitals, surveyed on their cleanliness parameters.

What is interesting, Millennium City Cuttack – which struggles to keep itself clean with its old urban designs – is ranked above Bhubaneswar at 296. Pilgrim town Puri that has been at the receiving end for bad waste management and disposal systems also ranks above the State Capital. Puri is ranked 298.

ALSO READ: Free WiFi trial in Bhubaneswar city of Odisha from 14 August

So much so for a clean and green capital for which Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) annually spends crores of rupees, particularly on its solid waste management much of which have been outsourced.

The Swachh Bharat rankings are based on a total of 42 marks including 20 for open defecation indicators and 22 for solid waste management indicators.

Karnataka’s Mysuru topped Swachh Bharat rankings with three more cities from the southern state figuring in the Top 10. Neighbouring West Bengal had at least 25 cities and towns among the Top 100.

However, Odisha has fared badly, with Bhubaneswar featuring among the bottom-ranked state capitals. Only Dehradun, Jaipur and Patna performed worse than Bhubaneswar.

That was not all, among the least performing urban areas on the Swachh Bharat parameters, western Odisha town Sambalpur ranked 467th out of 476 cities.

The survey conducted during 2014-15 was commissioned by the Ministry of Urban Development as required under the National Sanitation Policy of 2008.