Swachh Survekshan 2021: Shimla falls to 102nd spot; Dharamshala improves ranking
Shimla has slipped 37 ranks in the Swachh Survekshan 2021 ranking, a pan India cleanliness survey; Dharamshala, improved its ranking among the small-town category from 624 ranks to 134 this year
The Queen of Hills has slipped 37 ranks in the Swachh Survekshan ranking, a pan India cleanliness survey. It plunged to 102 from the 65th rank last year.
The urban development ministry has spent crores of rupees to improve the cleanliness in Shimla town. The municipal corporation in Shimla purchased two sweeping trucks worth ₹1.5 crore to clean the streets of the town. This year, 4,320 cities participated in the survey as opposed to 4,242 last year. The dropped ranking is said to be because of a lack of citizen voice and feedback coupled with an improper system of waste management. Shimla secured 927.24 marks out of 1,800 in citizen voice and feedback, down from last year’s score of 1,049.52. Its total score was 1,624 out of 2,400 in the service-level programme, besides 700 out of 1,800 in on the garbage-free city and ODF plus certificate parameters. The state capital got just a one-star rating out of five for the garbage-free city in the last two categories.” This year we could not do better. Garbage collection was hit adversely due to the pandemic. We will do our best to improve the door-to-door collection. Despite the odds, garbage collectors did a laudable job during the difficult times,” said Shimla municipal corporation mayor Satya Kaundal.
Shimla town had secured 26 ranks in the survey in 2016. The decline started after the BJP assumed power in the state.
The government is engaging part-time workers on outsourcing, said CPI (M) leader and former Shimla mayor Sanjay Chauhan.
“On one hand, these privatisation policies are putting more burden on the public by collecting more taxes and on the other hand these workers are also being exploited by contractors and companies,” he said.
However, the state’s second-biggest town, Dharamshala, improved its ranking among the small-town category from 624 ranks to 134 this year. Mandi town scored 155 ranking in the zonal ranking. In 2020, Mandi town was ranked 172. Tea town Palampur improved its ranking from 533 to 214 this year. Tourist destination Narkanda known for its ski slopes improved its ranking from 633 to 276 in the small-town category.