News Excerpt
The results of Swachh Survekshan 2020 was announced by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.

Pre-Connect
•    Urban development is a state subject and the 74th Constitution Amendment Act, 1992 enjoins upon the state governments to delegate many functions to urban local bodies.
•    Swachh Survekshan was launched by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2016.
•    Mysuru was chosen as the cleanest city of India in that edition of the survey.
•    Swachh Survekshan is meant to monitor the performance of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, which was launched on October 2, 2014, on the occasion of the150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.
•    It aims to make India open-defecation free by 2019.
•    The extensive sanitation survey is commissioned by the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs and carried out annually by the Quality Council of India.
•    The survey was introduced by the government with the objective of generating large-scale participation in Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. It was also aimed at inculcating a spirit of healthy competition among cities towards becoming India’s cleanest cities.

Highlights
    Swachh Survekshan 2020 covered 4,242 cities, 62 cantonment boards and 92 Ganga towns. This survey was carried out in 28 days.
    Fourth edition of the survey in 2019 covered 4,237 cities. It was the first-of-its-kind completely digital survey completed in a record time of 28 days.
    In 2020, Indore retained its position as the cleanest city for the fourth consecutive year.
    While Gujarat’s Surat bagged the second spot, Maharashtra’s Navi Mumbai ranked third. Varanasi was adjudged the ‘best Ganga town’ in the central government’s cleanliness survey.