As per a recent survey Indore, Ambikapur, Navi Mumbai, Surat, Rajkot and Mysuru have been rated as five-star cities. This was done as per the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs' rating protocol for garbage-free cities.
The same survey has awarded three-star rating to 86 cities and 64 have bagged only one-star.
The announcement of Navi Mumbai and five other being awarded five-star rating was made during the Swachh Survekshan awards declared by Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri. This survey was conducted to monitor the performance of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, launched in 2014. As a part of the process, 4,242 cities, 62 cantonment boards and 92 Ganga towns were monitored over a period of 28 days.
Indore city in Madhya Pradesh emerged as the cleanest city for the fourth time in a row, Surat and Navi Mumbai won the second and third position respectively in the more than one lakh population category.
Addressing the winners and citizens at large, the Hardeep Singh Puri said, "More than five years ago, the Prime Minister had seen a dream - the dream of a Swachh Bharat. Today, we feel immensely proud, as well as humbled, to see how every citizen of urban India has come together to make that dream a tangible reality."
Ever since the coronavirus outbreak started even greater importance is being laid on cleanliness and personal hygiene. The Minister also touching on that aspect said that everyone should strive to be Swachhata Warrior by inculcating habits of Swachhata such as practising proper segregation of waste at source, saying no to single-use plastic and treating sanitation workers with respect and dignity, among others.
Furthermore, Singh outlined the vision for the next phase of the Mission. He said, "I am also concerned about the safety of our sanitation workers, our frontline warriors in this 'Kranti'. Therefore, the provision of adequate safety gear and mechanised equipment to all sanitation workers will be paid maximum attention in the next phase of the Mission."
Meanwhile, in the category of less than one lakh population, Karad, Saswad and Lonavala cities in Maharashtra emerged as the winners.