(Image source from: Chandigarh voted cleanest city in India})

Politicians, bureaucrats as well as citizens in India wielded brooms on October 2 to make the country a cleaner place. People were determined to sweep the country free of dirt off their cities, towns and villages. But one city has earned the distinction of being the cleanest. And that is Chandigarh.

The Union Ministry of Urban Development conducted a survey to determine the cleanest as well as the dirtiest cities India as part of the Swachh Bharat programme.

Chandigarh emerged the winner. The north Indian city went on to beat cities like Mysore, Surat and Delhi to be ranked the cleanest Indian city.

Churu city in Rajasthan was labelled as the dirtiest in the country. The desert city comes under  Churu constituency and BJP's Rahul Kaswan is its current representative to the Lok Sabha.

Churu city is followed by Lakhimpur city and Pilibhit in Uttar Pradesh, Srinagar and Jhunjhunu city in Rajasthan. Pilibhit is the constituency of Varun Gandhi. Jhunjhunu has the dubious distinction of having a high crime rate as well.

Among the metros, Navi Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata and Greater Mumbai have been ranked as the dirtiest cities.

The survey covered 423 Indian cities comprising of 72% of the urban population. The cities were ranked on the basis of 19 sanitation indicators and a 100 points scale.

(AW: Pratima Tigga)