Cleanliness survey likely in March; Karnal civic body goes full throttle to get top position

With the Swachh Survekshan 2025-26 survey likely to take place anytime in March, the Karnal Municipal Corporation (KMC) and other urban local bodies in the district are leaving no stone unturned to achieve a higher ranking. It focuses on segregation of waste from source, visible cleanliness, proper maintenance of public and community toilets, market areas, main roads, parks, placement of dustbins, door-to-door collection, and other aspects.

Karnal city got third rank in the country in the ‘Swachh Shehar’ category (population 50,000–3 lakh) in Swachh Survekshan 2024–25, emerging as Haryana’s first city to receive the award from the President of India Droupadi Murmu. Karnal scored an impressive 11,067 out of 12,500, earned a 3-star Garbage-Free City rating, and achieved Water Plus status. Earlier, Karnal had ranked 115th in 2023. After this achievement, on the call of the Union Minister Manohar Lal Khattar an initiative Swachh Shehar Jodi (SSJ) was started, under which Karnal was assigned to mentor five smaller municipal bodies — Siwan, Ismailabad, Narnaund, Kalanwali and Rajound, turning the city from a performer into a mentor on urban hygiene.

On February 19, Karnal was ranked first in Haryana in an unannounced cleanliness survey conducted across all urban local bodies in the state. The survey was carried out under the directions of the state government to assess the actual ground-level sanitation conditions. The KMC secured the top position by scoring 7.5 out of 10 marks in the surprise inspection.

“A team from the Union Ministry will visit Karnal anytime in March. Not only the authorities of the KMC, but also other six MCs in the district are making full efforts to achieve better ranking. I have held a meeting with officials of the KMC and secretaries of all six MCs of the district and assigned them responsibilities to ensure thorough preparation,” said Vaishali Sharma, Commissioner, KMC.

Additional Municipal Commissioner Ashok Kumar will evaluate the municipal corporation area as per the official survey toolkit, while Deputy Municipal Commissioner Vinod Nehra will inspect other MCs of the district. Surprise inspections will also be conducted by her, she added.

Officials have been asked to focus on beautification work, proper upkeep of footpaths, dividers and parks, along with monitoring of banquet hall areas. “Non-compliance may attract fines or deductions from staff salaries,” she said.

Sharma said the officials had been instructed to focus on door-to-door waste collection and segregation of wet and dry waste. Each tipper should have separate compartments and colour-coded bins (red, yellow, black) at the back. Tipper drivers and helpers must be in uniform, and all vehicles should be in proper condition.

“Any beat with visible garbage or irregular cleaning will result in deduction of salary for the responsible employees, and sanitation workers,” she said.