By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, May 4, 2017 : The Temple city of Bhubaneswar has been placed at the 94th spot in the Swachh Survekshan-2017– sanitation rankings of cities/towns of India–, the annual rankings of cities being done by the Centre since 2014, released on Thursday. Indore has topped the list.

A seemingly clean city, Bhubaneswar not making it to the top 20 is primarily due to the absence of a solid waste management plant. Beside, open defecation is still rampant, officials said.

Bhubaneswar, however, made a quantum jump from the city’s rank of 213th in 2014 and 331st in 2015 in similar surveys. In 2016, when only 73 major cities with million plus population were surveyed, Bhubaneswar had stood 24th.

This time, the temple city was also adjudged the fastest moving city in east zone, a measure of its relative improvement of hygiene and sanitation, under the category of million-plus population.

The cities were evaluated in three ways: data provided by the civic body (900 marks out of which the city scored 590.58), independent assessment (360.77 out of 500 marks) and citizens’ feedback (303.11 out of 600 marks) on parameters such waste collection, solid waste disposal, Open Defecation Free (ODF), information, education behaviour change and capacity building.

“The score would have been much better with a municipal solid waste (MSW) treatment plant as it could have fetched 200 marks. Due to unprecedented opposition by a handful of vested interests, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation could not construct the plant,” an official said.

Among other Odisha towns, Rourkela was ranked 168th, Berhampur 187th, Balasore 190th, Puri 194th, Cuttack 204th, Baripada 261st, Sambalpur 322nd and Bhadrak 349th.

The consolation for Bhubaneswar is that it still ranked better than Raipur (129), Ranchi (117), Guwahati (134) and Patna (262), the other state capitals around it.

Among other cities/towns of Odisha, the temple city is followed by steel city Rourkela at 168th place, Berhampur at 187, Balasore at 190, Puri at 194, Cuttack at 204, Baripada at 261, Sambalpur at 322 and Bhadrak at 349th position.

While Indore topped the list as the cleanest city of India, the second spot was occupied by Bhopal and Visakhapatnam was placed at 3rd position.

The results of the survey were announced in New Delhi on Thursday by the Minister of Urban Development, M. Venkaiah Naidu.

Quality Council of India, which conducted the survey during January-February this year, deployed 421 assessors for on the site inspection of cleanliness in 434 cities and towns and another 55 for real time monitoring of progress of survey and field inspections. Field inspectors used geo-tagged devices for collecting evidence in real time of their inspection at 17,500 locations.