Telangana puts up poor show in Swachh Survekshan awards

In the ninth edition of Swachh Survekshan 2024-25, save for Greater Hyderabad, no other urban local bodies in Telangana secured awards

Hyderabad: There was a time when a few urban local bodies (ULBs) from Telangana used to secure Swachh Survekshan awards under different categories announced by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs annually.

However, in the ninth edition of Swachh Survekshan 2024-25, save for Greater Hyderabad, no other ULBs in Telangana secured awards. Greater Hyderabad secured the Ministerial Award (State level) and Secunderabad Cantonment Board bagged the Ministerial Award (Special Category).

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Interestingly, in the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, Visakhapatnam secured the Special Category Ministerial Award and Rajahmundry received the Ministerial Award at the State level. This apart, Vijayawada, Guntur, and Tirupati were recognised in the Swachh Super League Cities category, reports said.

The last and final phase of Swachh Survekshan – Field Assessment for the 9th edition commenced on February 15 and concluded by March end this year. The awards presentation ceremony is scheduled on July 17 at New Delhi.

In the Swachh Survekshan Awards 2023 in the Zonal Award category, Siddipet, Gundlapochampally and Nizampet had bagged awards. This apart, 18 ULBs had secured awards under zonal level category.

Among all the ULBs in the State, eight had bagged 1 Star status in Garbage-Free City category and one ULB in 5 Star status.

Interestingly, Municipal Administration and Urban Development Department officials claimed that the Swachh Survekshan award parameters were changed and there were not many categories in the current edition.

However, Telangana’s poor performance reflects the State government’s focus on the ULBs. Save for a few major ULBs, many others were facing financial constraints in implementing the 100-day programme. It was launched on June 2 and will continue till September 10.

In the past, under the Pattana Pragathi programme, the State government used to release Rs 116 crore every month. Of these, Rs 61 crore were released for Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation and Rs 55 crore for the remaining 141 ULBs. These funds had helped the ULBs in executing different development works, including sanitation and beautification in respective limits.