Swachh Survekshan: City 3 notches up

Harshraj Singh

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, June 23

Showing little improvement, Ludhiana has ranked 137th in the Swachh Survekshan 2018 against 140th rank last year. The national ranking of 485 cities (with population more than 1 lakh) has been declared by the Ministry of Housing Urban and Urban Affairs.

Ludhiana (third cleanest city in the state) got the 137th rank with a score of 2401.64 in the country. Besides, Bathinda (first among the cleanest cities in the state) ranked 104th with a score of 2565.21 and SAS Nagar (second in the state) ranked 109th with a score of 2543.91. Khanna in Ludhiana district has received 229th rank with a score of 1939.93. No city from Punjab could achieve any rank between 1 and 100.

Notably, the top three national rankings were declared last month. Indore had ranked 1, Bhopal 2 and Chandigarh 3 in the country.

Though the local MC has improved its ranking this year, the uncovered secondary garbage collection points (where garbage collected from houses is thrown by garbage collectors and then it is shifted to the main dump) continue to haunt the residents of the city. Besides, a lack of public toilets forcing people to urinate in the open at many places in city has affected its ranking.

The MC Health Officer, Dr Vipul Malhotra, said Ludhiana had improved its ranking this time. The city had stood 140th among 434 cities during a survey in 2017, he added. “Bathinda and SAS Nagar have been declared open defecation-free but Ludhiana is yet to get this status. We are hopeful that public toilets will be constructed in the city soon as O&M branch has floated tenders for it. We will improve our ranking the next time,” said Dr Malhotra.