Sambalpur: The municipal corporation here has secured the first position in the Swachha Survey-2018 mission in the state.

The corporation ranked first in the category of towns with one lakh to 10 lakh population in the state and 186th in the country.

The other cities of the state in the list are Bhubaneswar (190), Berhampur (216), Cuttack (230), Rourkela (240), Puri (259), Balasore (297), Bhadrak (335) and Baripada (347).

The Union housing and urban development ministry has conducted the survey. The ranking list was given to encourage cleanness drives and a competitive spirit among the city and towns administrations across the country. This year, the selection was made with 4,041 towns from across the country.

The survey mission had been initiated in 2016, when only 73 towns were included. In 2017, 434 towns had taken part in it. This year, 4,041 towns were included, an official source said.

According to the national ranking, with a score of 325.3, Sambalpur is the highest scorer in the state followed by Bhubaneswar (298.7), Berhampur (177.8), Cuttack (140.2) and Rourkela (113).

In the cleanliness mission, Nalgonda and Suryapat of Telangana were placed first and second. The third position went to Palli in Rajasthan.

In the less-than-10 lakh population category, Ganjam, Bargarh, Koraput, Balangir and Sundargarh secured the top positions in the state. At the national level, they ranked 714, 739, 745, 797 and 826th positions, respectively.