Vizag ranks 2nd in country’s Swachh Survekshan 2022 survey

Vizag has secured second place in the ‘citizen feedback’ category of the Swachh Survekshan 2022 survey. With 3,74,074 votes from the people of Vizag, the city stood second to South Delhi. The voting concluded on 30 April 2022.

Under the category of Urban Local Bodies (ULB) with a population over 10 lakh, the South Delhi Municipal Corporation was declared the winner with 4,19,977 votes. According to the officials, some technical glitches hampered Vizag’s performance during the last two days. Dhanbad, Indore, and Vijayawada have stood third, fourth, and fifth respectively under the same category.

The world’s largest urban sanitation and cleanliness survey is being conducted by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs since 2016. The survey’s primary goal is to encourage large scale participation and create awareness about the importance of collective participation in making their cities cleaner and greener.

Speaking to Yo! Vizag, Chief Medical Officer KSLG Sastry said, the city has performed very well this year and if not for the technical errors in the last two days, Vizag could have topped the list under the feedback category.

“People who were trying to vote did not receive OTP and some could not enter the OTP on the voting platform, especially in the last two days. We had constantly maintained a good range every day and the huge traffic on the last two days led to some technical glitches,” he explained.

Speaking about the impact of the program, the officer said, “awareness has been created. That is what is important. People are actively taking part in making the city clean and plastic-free, this is the main takeaway from the campaign.”

“We will continue our efforts, as there is so much more to do. There are many more categories Vizag will participate in this year, and we are definitely preparing for the next year’s Swachh Survekshan survey,” he added.

The efforts of the GVMC to replace single-use plastic bags with cloth bags also found a mention in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Mann Ki Baat program recently. GVMC also endorsed their campaign with the help of many famous celebrities and important people to create awareness around plastic and waste segregation.

Stay tuned for more such city updates!