Vadodara: Struggling to get a good ranking in Swachh Survekshan over the past couple of years, the Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) has now decided to rope in a consultancy firm that has worked with Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC), which has topped the rankings seven times. In 2023, despite an improvement in its overall score, Vadodara slipped to 33rd place, down from 14th in 2022 and 8th in 2021. The city’s decline in the rankings has been frustrating for the civic body, especially given its steady rise in previous years, when it jumped from a dismal 78th place in 2019 to 10th in 2020.
The recent drop, despite multiple initiatives to improve waste management and sanitation, has raised eyebrows and spurred action. The Swachh Survekshan is an annual survey of cleanliness, hygiene and sanitation in villages, cities and towns across India conducted by the Union ministry for urban development. VMC sources claim that a significant reason for a lower rank in 2023 was the change in the format of the contest.
Earlier, cities with over 1 lakh population and those with lower populations were ranked separately. In 2023, these categories were eliminated. However, it is believed that even with the older system, the city would have finished in the 18th position, which would have been better than 2023 but still lower than its rank in 2021 and 2022.
VMC officials argue that the city’s fall in the rankings was not just about the state of cleanliness on the ground. Instead, they poi.