Patna: Patna currently stands 44th in the Swachhata ranking in the country. Gwalior leads the list.

Patna was placed 79th in the Swachch Sarvekshan 2017.

Patna's total score as of now is 1,139.70 while user happiness stands at 8.40 on a scale of 10.

As a prelude to encouraging cities to improve urban sanitation, minister of housing and urban affairs (formerly ministry of urban development) had conducted Swachh Sarvekshan-2016 survey for the rating of 73 cities in January 2016, followed by Swachh Sarvekshan-2017 conducted in January-February 2017, ranking 434 cities. In a bid to scale up coverage of the ranking exercise and encourage towns and cities to actively implement mission initiatives in a timely and innovative manner, the ministry will this year conduct its third survey to rank all 4,041 cities based on assessment of progressfrom January 2017 to December 2017 under Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban (SBM-U).

The central government on January 4 announced the launch of a cleanliness survey for this year as part of Swachh Bharat Mission. The Swachh Sarvekshan 2018 will rank 500 cities at the national level that have a population of over 1 lakh and 3,541 cities that have less than 1 lakh population.

The cities will be ranked on the following basis - service level progress, that is data provided by municipal bodies based on which independent validation is done, and negative marking, made if discrepancies are found. Then data collection through direct observation is also being done through collection of citizen feedback and, lastly, cities are ranked based on all these inputs.

The survey attempts to capture the progress under six broad parameters, including collection and transportation of municipal solid waste, sanitation related progress, and whether cities have started campaigns promoting Swachh Sarvekshan, engaging citizens in waste management, maintenance of community and public toilets.

Meanwhile, a central team from the urban development ministry will visit Patna on January 29 to take stock of the situation. The team will be headed by Ramakant, deputy adviser, Central Public Health & Environmental Engineering Organisation (CPHEEO).

Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) commissioner Keshav Ranjan Prasad said: "We are all ready for the upcoming visit. Along with main roads of the city, this time we are more concentrating on smaller roads and thoroughfares."

Prasad further said that in a couple of days construction work for 68 public toilets will start in the city

This year, a revised methodology, including a penalty clause for false claims, have been introduced. The previous method suffered from an over-reliance on self-declaration by municipalities. It also lacked any provision for action against false claims by local civic bodies. The new methodology appears to address such shortcomings, the PMC commissioner said, adding: "Also, the channels through which feedback will be collected have also been expanded. Aside from social media, digital apps and phone calls, feedback will also be gathered through focused group discussions and face-to-face interactions."

The Swachh Sarvekshan-2016 was conducted in January 2016 assessing 73 Urban Local Bodies (ULBs). Mysore got the tag of the cleanest city of India that year. The 2017 edition was conducted in January-February 2017 covering 434 ULBs. Indore emerged as the cleanest city in the country in that survey.