Context :- 

In last year’s swachh survey, out of 4,203 cities that took part, Dhanbad had ranked 53rd. After its dismal performance in last year’s swachh survey, the civic body has initiated a host of steps to improve its ranking this year by ensuring on-site composting of trash and its segregation at garbage collection points. Out of 4,203 cities that took part in the survey, the coal town ranked 53rd.

The rules state that biodegradable waste should be processed, treated and disposed off through composting or biomethanation within the premises as far as possible and residual waste should be given to waste collectors or the agency as directed by the civic body.

Swachh Survey :- 

Swachh Survekshan is a ranking exercise taken up by the Government of India to assess rural and urban areas for their levels of cleanliness and active implementation of Swachhata mission initiatives in a timely and innovative manner.

The objective of the survey is to encourage large scale citizen participation and create awareness amongst all sections of society about the importance of working together towards making towns and cities a better place to live in. Additionally, the survey also intends to foster a spirit of healthy competition among towns and cities to improve their service delivery to citizens, towards creating cleaner cities and towns.

The Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India takes up the Swachh Survekshan in urban areas and the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation in rural areas. The Quality Council of India (QCI) has been commissioned the responsibility of carrying out the assessment.

The Swachh Survekshan 2018 assessed 4203 Urban Local Bodies and was organized by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), under the aegis of the Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban). The exercise undertaken between 4th January 2018 to 10th March, 2018 enhanced the scope to cover a record number of Urban Local Bodies impacting around 40 crore urban citizens across length and breadth of the country by 2700 assessors. As compared to 2017 where Swachh Survekshan was conducted in 434 cities, this year the scope was enhanced manifold.

During Swachh Survekshan 2018, a record number of 37.66 lakh citizen feedbacks were collected and 53.58 lakh Swachhata Apps downloaded. The total number of interactions on Swachhata App by citizens were around 1.18 crore. In 2016, Swachh Survekshan was conducted in 73 cities having a population of one million or more and capital city of States/ UTs and Mysore had bagged the award of being the cleanest city of India. In 2017, the scope of Swachh Survekshan was enlarged to cover 434 cities having a population of one lakh or more and Capital city of states/ UTs and Indore was awarded as cleanest city of India.

Cities having population of one lakh and more and capital cities were ranked at National Level and cities with population of less than one lakh were ranked at Zonal Level – North, south, East, West and North East. Based on the performance in Swacch Survekshan, 2018, it has been decided to confer awards 29 cities/ cantonment boards at National Level, 20 cities at Zonal Level and 3 states having the best performance in the urban areas. While deciding the awards, it has been kept in mind that one city gets only one award i.e the category in which it has performed the best. In case a city has already been awarded in some category, next best is awarded in the other category.