GUWAHATI, Aug 21 - The Guwahati city is one of the dirtiest cities of the country in the main category of 1 lakh to 10 lakh population in the country, according to Swachh Survekshan 2020 the results of which were announced by the Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Thursday.
The Guwahati city ranked 356 out of the 382 cities in the category. Shillong ranked 377.
Jorhat was declared as the cleanest city in the Northeast in the 50,000-1,00,000 population category, according to the survey. Tezpur was declared second in the same category followed by Bongaigaon (3rd), Diphu (TC) (4th), Dhubri (5th), Sivasagar (6th), North Lakhimpur (7th), Goalpara (8th), Karimganj (9th) and Tinsukia (10th).
Though the State government has been spending crores of rupees through the Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) to keep the city clean, the Guwahati slipped to 356th rank from 303rd rank in 2019.
The Guwahati Municipal Corporation last year had taken several initiatives, including forming flying squads especially for waste management, cash reward, etc., to keep the city clean but it failed miserably.
Former GMC Commissioner Debeswar Malakar had said last year that the GMC had set a target to come in the top 20 positions in the Swachh Survekshan 2020, but it was nowhere near that mark.
Assam, however, received the award for the �fastest mover State� of the country among the States having less than 100 urban local bodies (ULB).
Tezpur Municipal Board was named the best city in �citizens feedback� in the Northeast in the category of 50,000-1,00,000 population, while the Sivasagar Municipal Board emerged best city in �innovation and best practices� in the same category.
Karimganj received best �self sustainable city�.
This is the fifth edition of the survey that was introduced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2016.
Meanwhile, voluntary organisation Save Guwahati Build Guwahati (SGBG) raised concerns regarding the poor performance of the Guwahati city in Swachh Survekshan 2020. SGBG general secretary Kailash Sharma attributed the poor performance of Guwahati to the officials of the Guwahati Development Department and the Guwahati Municipal Corporation.
