Pune, March 7: The Pune Municipal Corporation’s ranking among the 100 cleanest cities dipped this year in the Swachh Survekshan 2019 – released by the Union government on Wednesday – though the administration undertook several initiatives to improve its ranking. As per the newly released list, Pune slipped from its previous rank of 10 to 37 and the administration had blamed on ‘lack of documentation’.

Comparing the previous ranking of the Pune in the Swachh survey, the city fared well with 10th rank in 2018, 13th in 2017 and 11th in 2016. Pune is considered as one of the growing metropolitan cities in India and has a population of more than one lakh population in their jurisdiction. Is to be known Indore retained the top spot in the Swachh survey, while Ambikapur in Chhattisgarh and Mysuru have been ranked second and third respectively. Swachh Sarvekshan 2019: Indore Declared Cleanest City of India, Bhopal Emerged as Cleanest Capital.

Asked the reason for the failure to improve the ranking, the Pune Municipal Commissioner blamed it on the lack of paperwork. Dnyaneshwar Molak, joint municipal commissioner and in-charge of the solid waste management department, said, as reported by the Indian Express: “We had done a lot of work on the field to improve the PMC’s ranking in the survey, but it seems we fell short in the documentation that was submitted for the ranking.”

Also, when compared to even the cities and municipal corporation of Maharashtra, Pune fared not that good either in the Swachh survey. Pune secured the eighth position in Maharashtra, while Navi Mumbai was found to be the cleanest city in the state, followed by Kolhapur, Mira-Bhayandar, Chandrapur, Ambarnath, Wardha and Vasai-Virar.

However, the only good news for Maharashtra came for the urban local category where Karad town in Satara district became the cleanest such city in the country, followed by Lonavala in Pune district, Mul in Chandrapur district and Vita in Sangli district, as per the survey. Also, eight of the top 10 positions have been bagged by Maharashtra in this category.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 07, 2019 04:10 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).