Swachh Survekshan 2016 also included a separate survey carried out by the Quality Council of India, which ranked 75 best performing districts, covering more than 70,000 households, in rural India.
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Mandi was judged as the cleanest district in “Hills” category and Sindhudurg as the cleanest in the “Plains” category, with districts of Sikkim, Shimla (Himachal Pradesh), Nadia (West Bengal) and Satara (Maharashtra) featuring at the top of the index.
The rankings measured States and the 75 districts (selected on the basis of some villages being declared open defecation free) on the percentage of households that have access to toilets and usage, have no litter and waste water around and cleanliness around public places, such as schools, temples and hospitals.
Sikkim recorded 100 per cent in the category of people using household/community toilets and 98.2 per cent in the category of percentage of households having sanitary toilet.
Haryana (87.33 percent), Uttarakhand (86.42 percent), Mizoram (84.75 percent), Meghalaya (82.47 percent), Manipur (81.04 percent) and Punjab (78.89 percent) are the other states on the top 10 list.
Mandi in Himachal Pradesh and Sindhudurg in Maharashtra are the cleanest districts in India, according to findings of a survey commissioned by the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation. Kerala scored 96.4 while neighbouring Tamil Nadu notched up just 39.2.
Incidentally, the Ministry’s latest programme data showBihar’s rural coverage at only 25.16 per cent, which is lower than 31.6 per cent coverage shown by the National Sample Survey in June 2015. Odisha (32.79 percent), Jammu and Kashmir (33.35 percent), Jharkhand (40.52 percent), Telangana (42.13 percent), Uttar Pradesh (44.15 per cent), Andhra Pradesh (47.14 percent), Madhya Pradesh (47.48 percent), Puducherry (50.53 percent) and Andaman and Nicobar Islands (55.14 percent) are also among states which have not fared well.
Among the hilly regions, Shimla, Hamirpur, Kullu and Chamba in Himachal Pradesh; West Sikkim, East Sikkim, South Sikkim and North Sikkim in Sikkim and Mizoram’s Champhai districts have made it to the top 10 cleanest districts.
When asked about his home state Madhya Pradesh securing 24th spot in the Ministry’s list and 23 in NSSO’s list, Tomar said being a minister he is responsible for the entire country and the government is taking efforts to keep the campaign active across India.
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A total of 22 hill districts and 53 plain areas were assessed under the Gramin Swachh Survekshan launched in May this year.
