PM Narendra Modi to announce results of Swachh Survekshan 2020 on August 20

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NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will announce the results of 'Swachh Survekshan 2020' on August 20. This is the fifth edition of the annual cleanliness survey of the country. A total of 129 awards will be handed over to the top-performing cities and states in the programme, titled 'Swachh Mahotsav'.

The Prime Minister will also be interacting with select beneficiaries, swachhagrahis, and SafaiKarmis under the Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban (SBM-U), from different parts of the country through video conference, according to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO). 

He shall launch the Swachh Survekshan 2020 results dashboard on the occasion, it added.

Swachh Survekshan 2020 is the world's largest cleanliness survey which ranked a total of 4,242 cities, 62 Cantonment Boards, and 92 Ganga Towns and saw unprecedented participation of 1.87 crore citizens.

The event is being organised by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), Government of India.Swachh Survekshan was introduced by the government with the objective of generating large scale citizen participation in the Mission, along with inculcating a spirit of healthy competition among cities towards becoming India`s cleanest cities.

MoHUA had conducted Swachh Survekshan 2016 survey for rating 73 major cities in January 2016, followed by Swachh Survekshan 2017 conducted in January-February 2017 for ranking 434 cities. Swachh Survekshan 2018, which, ranked 4,203 cities followed by SS 2019 which not only covered 4,237 cities but was also the first-of-its-kind completely digital survey completed in a record time of 28 days.

In Swachh Survekshan 2020, in order to ensure continuous assessment and sustainability of on-ground performance of cities, the Government had also introduced Swachh Survekshan League, a quarterly cleanliness assessment of cities and towns conducted across three quarters, with 25 per cent weightage integrated into the final Swachh Survekshan results for this year.

Swachh Survekshan has caught the imagination of citizens and stakeholders alike and the increasing participation from citizens with every passing year is testimony to the way in which common citizenry has taken complete ownership of the Swachhata of its cities, PMO stated. 

Swachh Survekshan has today made 'Swachhata' a thing of motivation and pride - something to look forward to and aspire for. While Mysuru had won the award for the Cleanest City of India in the first edition of the survey, Indore has retained the top position for three consecutive years (2017,2018, 2019). 

The results to be announced on 20 August 2020 will bring the curtains down on the much-anticipated results for the 2020 edition which were delayed owing to the current COVID pandemic.

Another feature of the event will be the bringing together and felicitation of MoHUA`spartner organisations in the SBM-U journey, including the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), Google, etc.

Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of State (I/C), MoHUA Durga Shanker Mishra, Secretary, MoHUA will be participating in the event along with various Mayors, State Mission Directors, Municipal Commissioners and other stakeholders in the area of urban sanitation and waste management.