Indore cleanest city for 3rd year in a row
New Delhi: It was a moment of proud for the residents of Madhya Pradesh in general and Indore in particular as the home city of Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan was adjudged as India's cleanest city for the third straight year in the Central government's cleanliness survey announced on Wednesday.
The second and third positions in the category were grabbed by Ambikapur in Chhattisgarh and Mysore in Karnataka. The Swachh Survekshan awards 2019 were conferred by President Ram Nath Kovind. While the New Delhi Municipal Council area was given the 'Cleanest Small City' award, Uttarakhand's Gauchar was adjudged the 'Best Ganga Town' in the central government survey.
The 'Cleanest Big City' award has been bagged by Ahmedabad, while Raipur is the 'Fastest Moving Big City'.
Ujjain, which is also known as abode of Mahakal, has been adjudged as the 'Cleanest Medium City' and Mathura-Vrindavan bagged the tag of the 'Fastest Moving Medium Cities'. Madhya Pradesh's Urban Development and Housing Minister Jaivardhan Singh along with Mayors of three city corporations Malini Gaur (Bhopal), Alok Sharma (Indore) and Meena Vijay Jonwal (Ujjain), commissioners of three civic bodies received the awards.
Top-ranked cities received a statue of Mahatma Gandhi as a memento for their work towards cleanliness. Swachh Survekshan 2019 covered all urban local bodies in the country, making it the largest such cleanliness survey in the world.
"Mahatma Gandhi had played a pivotal role in spearheading the movement of cleanliness. I hope people will take inspiration from the just concluded Kumbh Mela and the level of cleanliness in it," Kovind said. "There is a need to change the mindset of the people towards cleanliness as many people pay a lot of attention to personal hygiene and cleanliness at home but not to public cleanliness," he added.
Hailing Indore's achievement, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said, "It was the Prime Minister Narendra Modi who had kick-started the cleanliness campaign from the ramparts of the Red Fort and on his call, the countrymen took part in the campaign. Indore performed best by securing first position for the third year in a row. It's all happened with the support of people of the city."
