Govt launches 3rd cleanliness survey, revises methodology

The government on Monday launched the third cleanliness survey –'Swachh Survekshan-2018' –to rank 4,041 cities and towns in the country with a revised methodology.

Under the survey, launched by Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs Narendra Singh Tomar here, 500 cities with more than 1 lakh population and state and UT capitals will have all-India ranking.

Also, 3,541 cities with less than 1 lakh population will have state and zonal rankings.

Cities will be ranked based on 71 sanitation-related parameters with different weightage. The cumulative marks will be 4,000. The 2017 survey had total 2,000 marks.

Huge negative marking has been introduced this time to ensure cities do not make false claims about improvement in sanitation infrastructure.

If claims of a city government about any parameter are found to be incorrect by independent assessors, it will get zero marks for that parameters. Also, it will attract 33 per cent negative marking on the total obtained marks.

Union minister Babul Supriyo, who was also present on the occasion, released an anthem 'Swachhata Ki Jyot Jagi Hai (flame of sanitation has been lit)' to encourage peoples' participation in the survey.

The cleanliness survey was launched in 2016 as part of the Swachh Bharat Mission.

Under the first survey, Swachh Survekshan-2016, 73 cities with over 10 lakh population and all the state capitals were ranked. Mysuru had topped the list.

In the 2017 survey, 434 cities with over 1 lakh population and all the state capitals were ranked. Indore had emerged as the cleanest city.

The 2018 survey is the first such pan-India exercise and is the largest in the world, Tomar said as he stressed on making Swachh Bharat Mission a jan andolan (people's movement).

Detailing the changes in assessment weightages, Housing and Urban Affairs Secretary Durga Shanker Mishra said the weightage of citizen feedback has been increased to 35 per cent in the 2018 survey from 30 per cent in the last one. Similarly, the weightage of direct observation is also increased to 30 per cent from 25 per cent in previous survey.

However, 'service level progress' has been reduced from 45 to 35 per cent.

A new element of 'innovation' has been introduced with a weightage of 5 per cent to encourage cities to take up innovative sanitation practices and solutions. The weightage of 'processing and disposal' component has been increased from 20 to 25 per cent.