Berhampur pips Bhubaneswar to become cleanest city in state

Berhampur/Bhubaneswar: Berhampur has emerged as the cleanest city in the state in the Swachh Survekshan 2019, pushing smart city Bhubaneswar to second place. This is a huge jump for Silk City, which was ranked fourth in the previous survey while the state capital was ranked first. But while Berhampur celebrated, it was not a great story for any of the state’s five cities that took part in the latest survey as none could find a place within the top 100.
While Berhampur ranked 216th among 4237 cities that took part in the survey across India, Bhubaneswar was 288 with Puri, Rourkela and Cuttack ranked 339, 353 and 374 respectively. Indore topped the Swachh rankings, released by the Union ministry of housing and urban affairs on Wednesday.
The ranking came as a boost to Berhampur which managed 305th place across the country the last time around. Berhampur Municipal Corporation (BeMC) commissioner Chakravarti Singh Rathore said involving self-help groups (SHGs) in construction of toilets and their maintenance and installation of underground dustbins became a game-changer. “We will try to improve our national ranking next year with support from the citizens,” Rathore said.
The survey started in September last year and verification by an independent agency was carried out in January to verify the data submitted. It must be mentioned that Berhampur became the first municipal corporation in the state to be declared open defection free (ODF) on October 2 last year.
The civic body had recently launched a “faecal sludge demon” to create awareness on timely maintenance of toilets and management of faecal sludge with the involvement of SHGs.
Meanwhile, it was disappointing news for Bhubaneswar which slipped from 245 to 288 and also lost the top slot within the state. The city is yet to have a solid waste treatment plant although there is a designated dump yard at Bhuasuni in Daruthenga on the outskirts of the city. Poor solid waste management alone cost the city 1,000 marks out of the total 4,000.