Mandi and Sindhudurg Adjudged Cleanest Districts in India

The ‘Swachh Survekshan’ for rural India was released today by Sri Narendra Singh Tomar, Minister of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Rural Dev and Panchayati Raj. As per this finding Mandi in Himachal Pradesh and Sindhudurg in Maharashtra have been adjudged as the cleanest districts in India. A total of 22 hill districts and 53 districts in plain areas were assessed under the Gramin Swachh Survekshan launched in May 2016. Mandi was judged as the cleanest district in “Hills” category and Sindhudurg as the cleanest in the “Plains” category, with districts of Sikkim, Shimla (Himachal Pradesh), Nadia (West Bengal) and Satara (Maharashtra) featuring at the top of the index.

The Ministry had commissioned Quality Council of India (QCI) to carry out the assessment. Each district has been judged on four distinct parameters. Maximum weightage was places on accessibility to safe toilets and water. The parameters to judge sanitation status included:

• Households having access to safe toilets and using them (toilet usage, water accessibility, safe disposal of waste) (40%)
• Households having no litter around (30%)
• Public places with no litter in the surrounding (10%)
• Households having no stagnant wastewater around (20%)

The assessors appointed by QCI individually visited all districts covered under the Survekshan to make a comprehensive analysis of the on-ground situation & progress.

Expressing his delight over the announcement, Shri Narendra Singh Tomar congratulated the district administrators, councilors and gram panchayats of all 75 districts assessed, for participating in the survey and for giving their valuable feedback to make the Swachh Bharat Mission a success. He also went on to congratulate Mandi and Sindhudurg for leading the Swachh Bharat Mission by example and driving the much needed behavioral change needed in rural society. He additionally remarked that the Survekshan exercise apart from assessing the work carried out on-ground, will also foster a healthy spirit of competition amongst districts in the race to achieve the cleanest district tag.