Ranchi, May 13: Cities of Jharkhand have flunked the hygiene test — and most of them miserably so.

A study commissioned by the urban development ministry has revealed that although the state has a long way to go in terms of sanitation, Jamshedpur and Bokaro — where civic services are the responsibility of corporate houses like Tata Steel and Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) — have been its saving grace.

While the steel city ranked seventh in the study conducted on 423 cities nationwide, Bokaro stood at 48. Besides the two, Ranchi, with rank 118, was the only other city in Jharkhand to come under the “black category”, which means it still needs to improve.

The study was conducted between December 2009 and April 2010 as a part of the National Urban Sanitation Policy by agencies such as ACNielsen ORG-MARG, Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology and Development Research Services.

The report, that exposed the squalid underbelly of our so-called clean-green cities, was unveiled by urban development minister S. Jaipal Reddy in Delhi on Monday.

All the cities were tried on 19 sanitation parameters, including cleanliness, open defecation, provision for clean drinking water, access to community toilets, safe management of human excreta, solid waste collection and treatment. The cities were divided into four categories — green (healthy and clean), blue (recovering), black (needs considerable improvement) and red (needs immediate remedial action).

Unfortunately, none of the 423 Class I cities was declared healthy and clean, which required a score between 91 and 100. Chandigarh bagged the top position with 73.480 points and was declared blue. With only 16.750 points, Churu in Rajasthan stayed at the bottom of the list.

In Jharkhand, four other urban centres where the study was conducted were declared red. Dhanbad ranked 244, Mango, which is part of Jamshedpur but does not come under Tata Steel command area, was placed at 279, Hazaribagh stood at 310 and Adityapur (near Jamshedpur) ranked 399.

Jamshedpur Utilities and Services Company (Jusco), a Tata Steel subsidiary, is responsible for the upkeep of the steel city and offers services like water, power, municipal solid waste management and maintenance of roads and parks. Managing director of Jusco Manish Sharma lauded citizens. “We could not have done what we did without co-operation from the people,” he said, adding that the national research would give impetus to its services.

On Bokaro’s sanitation secret, the chief of communications of Bokaro Steel Limited, Sanjay Tewary, said regular cleanliness drives such as door-to-door garbage collection and afforestation on a massive scale worked miracles.

“Every year, we strictly maintain more than 33 per cent green cover in the township, including the factory area. Roads are cleaned and sewers maintained. Garbage is always collected in covered vats and ferried to the dumping ground,” he said.

In Ranchi, urban development secretary P.K. Jojoria admitted sanitation woes. “There are many bottlenecks in implementing JNNURM projects. I have directed civic authorities concerned to act to remove them.”