Indore selected again as the cleanest city in India
Time for Madhya Pradesh to be proud again as Indore has been ranked as the cleanest city for the second time in a row by the Union Urban Affairs Ministry. However, the glory doesn’t limit to it as the state capital Bhopal flowed Indore as the second best cleanest city in the country. Chandigarh was picked as the third cleanest city.
Indore to Madhya Pradesh is compared to what Mumbai is to India. The district has a prominent part in the growth of the state as it contributes around 35 per cent of the state’s GDP. Aided by a lot of positive factors, Indore is considered as one of the top 10 fastest growing cities in the country. The rich cotton soil of Malwa, closeness to river Narmada for water supply, connectivity from all sides, a rich sociable culture and an international character has developed over the years. Indore also features in the list of top Indian cities having fastest GDP growth.
Even though Indore is classified as a tier-two city, the city always ranked number one in Central India serving the needs of high and mighty. The credit was given to the Municipal Corporation when Indore was selected again as the cleanest city. However, Manish Singh, former commissioner of Municipal Corporation, had a different version. “It is the urban mindset of the local people and the rich legacy, which helped us achieve this. It was a kind of challenge to us to bring back the municipal services on track. Though the city invited an investment of over Rs 18,000 crore, yet the people were unhappy of the civic amenities. The property prices were stagnant. All these issues were a concern for the government, which wanted to showcase Indore as a model city”, he said.
The municipal corporation has more than 13,500 employees who were divided into six labour unions. Later these unions were unified and the corporation terminated some 90 employees who created problems. Indore was ranked at 149th place in the cleanliness ranking of Indian cities in 2014. They jumped to 25th position in 2015 rankings and came to the top in 2017, seizing the crown from Mysore.
