Aizawl, Gangtok, Agartala Among India’s 10 Cleanest Cities - Eastern Mirror
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Aizawl, Gangtok, Agartala among India’s 10 cleanest cities

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By Our Correspondent Updated: Jul 15, 2016 10:27 pm

IMPHAL, JULY 15: The capital cities of Mizoram, Sikkim and Tripura have been listed among the ten cleanest cities of the country during a survey conducted by New Delhi based research and advocacy organisation-Centre for Science and Environment (CSE).
The top three cleanest cities of the country as per the CSE survey are Alappuzha in Kerela, Panaji in Goa and Mysuru in Karnataka.
The CSE has ranked these three cities along with 11 others on the basis of the way they manage their solid municipal waste.
These three popular Indian cities which have municipal waste management systems that actually work unlike others, is followed by Bobbili, a small town in Andhra Pradesh in the fourth place.
Mizoram’s capital Aizawl was placed in the fifth rank and it was followed by Pune and Surat, both in Maharashtra and Suryapet town of Telengana. Gangtok of Sikkim and Agartala of Tripura occupied the 9th and 10th rank. Shimla, Bengaluru, Chandigarh and Delhi are also among the cities that ranked at the bottom of the survey.
CSE Director General Sunita Narain said, “Even Aizawl look clean but it requires proper waste management systems. The best option is what we have found in Alappuzha where municipalities have withdrawn from the waste business. People segregate and compost; informal recyclers collect and sell. This is perhaps the most exciting model for future waste business in the country.”
It may be noted that Alappuzha had once missed the Centre’s survey on cleanliness – Swachh Survekshan-2016 – due to population criteria and so the government ranking in January. Municipal commissioners and people of Alappuzha, Panaji and Mysuru were even awarded by Union Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu recently during the launch of CSE’s book ‘Not in My Backyard: Solid Waste Management in India Cities’ in Delhi as ‘the clean cities for their best practices in solid waste management like zero landfills, segregation of waste at source and decentralised waste management’.
This survey is different from the Urban Development ministry’s January survey that took into account the components of ‘Swachh Bharat Mission’ like construction of toilets, solid waste management and independent observation while coming out with its ranking as CSE survey was, however, limited to 14 cities, It tried to find out what actually makes these cities clean and how the best practices would act as a guide for future policy.
Fifty-three cities with a population of above 10 lakhs each and 22 capitals that do not have that much population were selected for the survey. It may be recalled that Mysuru, Chandigarh, Tiruchirapalli, New Delhi Municipal Council, Visakhapatnam, Surat, Rajkot, Gangtok, Pimpri Chindwad and Greater Mumbai had emerged as the top 10 cities in terms of sanitation and hygiene in the government survey.
“As India becomes more literate and politically aware, most cities are encountering stiff resistance when they attempt to dispose of waste in somebody else’s backyard,” CSE deputy director general Chandra Bhushan said. “In Pune, Bengaluru, Panaji, Alleppey (Alappuzha) and Gurgaon, village communities have been up in arms against the dumping of waste by a neighbouring city. This resistance will continue to grow. Cities are also finding it difficult to secure ‘environmental approval’ for their landfills.”

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By Our Correspondent Updated: Jul 15, 2016 10:27:16 pm
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