SHILLONG, June 25 - The best performing State for cleanliness under the Swachh Survekshan 2018 has been announced and only Sikkim from North East has featured in the top ten ranking.
Jharkhand has bagged the top position as the �best performing State� for cleanliness, followed by Maharastra and Chattisgarh in the third position. Sikkim bagged the sixth position in the overall ranking.
Most of the Northeastern States, barring Sikkim, Manipur (11), Mizoram (15) were placed at the bottom of the list with Tripura being the least performing State in terms of cleanliness among 31 States and Union Territories.
Assam had an overall ranking of 24th, followed by Meghalaya at 26, Arunachal Pradesh 27, Nagaland 29 and Tripura at the bottom 31st rank.
Among the cities, Indore (Madhya Pradesh) bagged the first position for cleanliness for the second year in a row, followed by Bhopal (MP), Chandigarh and New Delhi. Only Gangtok from NE featured in the top 100 list at 94th position with a total score of 2601.4.
From the cities in Meghalaya and Assam, Shillong was placed at a distant 413, Guwahati at 207, Dibrugarh 360, Nagaon 387 and Silchar 433.
Some of the parameters that were considered for the ranking included: citizen�s feedback, sanitation, innovation, information, education, communication and behavioral change, capacity building, collection and transportation of waste and processing and disposal of waste.
The survey also carried out separate zonal rankings for different cities. In the NE zonal rankings, Kakching in Manipur bagged the top slot with Biate in Mizoram and Kumbi in Manipur following in this list.
Even in this ranking, towns of Meghalaya fared poorly with Williamnagar at the bottom 100, Tura at 101, Resubelpara at 102, Nongstoin 107, Jowai 120 and Baghmara 134.
One of the reasons for this poor performance is lack of proper disposal of waste in all the major towns of the NE. Moreover, in Meghalaya, the State Government has given a lukewarm response to the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan so far.
In the State Capital here, the Government is in the process to build the dumping ground at Martin with scientific methods. But, the project has hit hurdles. Moreover, the indiscriminate use of plastic has also added to the waste with the Government changing the rules frequently on use of plastic bags and materials.
