New Delhi: After getting the cleanest city tag seven consecutive times, Indore and some other traditionally high performing cities such as Surat and Navi Mumbai, won’t be allowed to compete with other cities in the annual Swachhta (cleanliness) ranking. Such cities will be put in a new category named “Golden Cities Club” and they will have a separate competition among themselves, Union housing and urban affairs minister Manohar Lal said on Friday.
This is being done so that cities which have not been scoring well can aspire to emerge as top rankers by taking more measures to improve cleanliness and sanitation, sources said. Lal and his Cabinet colleague C R Patil also announced the govt’s mega plan to transform two lakh “difficult and dirty” spots in a time-bound manner, which has been termed as Cleanliness Target Units, during the fortnight-long activities to mark the 10th anniversary of Swachh Bharat Mission.
Lal said, “It is true that sometimes a student who gets first place in first standard continues to get the first rank every year. Sometimes, we hear that ‘if only one will get first place every time, then why should others put any effort’. When we see the competition between cities, we see Indore gets first place repeatedly. So, we have come up with a new category for cities that get first place, called the Golden Cities Club.”
This is being done so that cities which have not been scoring well can aspire to emerge as top rankers by taking more measures to improve cleanliness and sanitation, sources said. Lal and his Cabinet colleague C R Patil also announced the govt’s mega plan to transform two lakh “difficult and dirty” spots in a time-bound manner, which has been termed as Cleanliness Target Units, during the fortnight-long activities to mark the 10th anniversary of Swachh Bharat Mission.
Lal said, “It is true that sometimes a student who gets first place in first standard continues to get the first rank every year. Sometimes, we hear that ‘if only one will get first place every time, then why should others put any effort’. When we see the competition between cities, we see Indore gets first place repeatedly. So, we have come up with a new category for cities that get first place, called the Golden Cities Club.”