Clean, but not enough

Bhubaneswar, May 4: The capital city has been ranked 94th, while Cuttack occupied the 204th position in Swachh Survekshan-II in which 434 cities from across the country took part.

Nine cities from the state had taken part in the survey. While Bhubaneswar tops the state, Rourkela was ranked 168, Berhampur was 187, Balasore 190, Puri, 194, Baripada, 261, Sambalpur, 322 and Bhadrak 349.

While Indore from Madhya Pradesh topped the survey with an overall score of 1,808, Bhubaneswar managed to secure 1,254 out of a total of 2,000 marks. The shortcomings of the city were the absence of a waste processing plant, a landfill site and non-implementation of onsite waste processing facility of bulk waste generators.

"We have been trying to set up a waste treatment plant at Bhuasuni. But that is not happening because of protests by the local people. This has been one of our biggest failures that reflected in the result. We hope that the protesters realise that their opposition to the project is damaging the image of the city," said a civic body official.

However, civic body officials are happy to have improved their rank.

"The competition was bigger this time with 500 cities and we gave our best. In the 2014 survey, we had ranked 331. This time we are in the top hundred. It is indeed a proud moment, but it doesn't mean that we will stop working to make the city cleaner," said mayor Ananta Narayan Jena.

The survey of 476 cities was carried out shortly after launch of the Swachh Bharat campaign in 2014.

Cuttack, which has been struggling to maintain a clean environment due to its old urban design, performed quite well in the survey this time as compared to its 2014 performance. The city, which stood 296th then, has climbed to 204 now. Cuttack managed to secure 977 out of 2,000.

Bhubaneswar had taken part in the first Swachh Survekshan last year and secured the 24th position among 74 participating cities.