Chandigarh: It is indeed a watershed moment for Punjab that 2 of its cities have shone on the National firmament in terms of cleanliness parameters. Bhadson city in Patiala region has been awarded cleanest city in North India zone in under One lakh population. Moonak city in Punjab has also been declared Best City in Citizen’s Feedback in North Zone. The North zone comprises J&K, Himachal, Punjab, Haryana, U.P, Uttarakhand, and Delhi. The cities will be awarded at the National Level.
It is worth mentioning that the Government of India has announced the results of Swachhata Survekshan-2018 conducted by Ministry of Health and Urban Affairs, Government of India. Last year, Swachhata Sarvekshan 2017 was conducted in 434 cities with population one lakh or above across India. The performance of 16 participatory cities across Punjab was not very encouraging results in the 2017 survey. The best performing Mohali city in the Punjab was ranked overall 121 in SS 2017 and performance of some other cities was at the rock bottom. The Swachhata Sarvekshan 2018 has included three main parameters Service Level Progress, Direct Observation and Citizen Feedback with total marking of 4000. This year total of 4203 cities was assessed throughout India.
The Local Government, Punjab, Navjot Singh Sidhu has extended congratulations to the departmental officers especially the Mission Director Ajoy Sharma for making stupendous efforts and rendering yeoman’s service towards the state achieving this exalting status.
The State Mission Director, Swachh Bharat Mission Punjab Ajoy Sharma said that the minister played a positive role in giving departmental priority to Sanitation and Swachh Bharat Mission (SWM) in cities across Punjab to make efforts towards clean and green Punjab. He has also congratulated the Bhadson and Moonak cities for achieving landmark recognition and expressed strong hope that once the total ranking of all the cities will be made public in coming days, more cities from Punjab will attain higher positions in North Zone. He further said that the positive results indicate greater role of communities, awareness and sensitivity of residents towards cleanliness and higher standards of Sanitation and SWM to make cities garbage free by providing hand holding support at Urban Local Body (ULB) level.
State Mission Director-SBM Punjab has also elaborated about recently launched Government of India scheme “Star Rating of Cities” whereby cities will be competing to attain star rating on the scale of 1-7 based on rigorous Parameters of Sanitation and SWM.