Chennai: Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu, finds itself at the bottom of the Swachh Survekshan Survey ranking at the 235th place, while smaller cities like Tiruchy and Coimbatore figured among the top 20 clean cities across the country.
Among 434 cities surveyed for their cleanliness, Chennai slumped to position 235 from a 2016 ranking of 35 when only 73 cities had participated in the survey by the Union urban development ministry. Chennai’s humiliation was complete when even suburbs like Tambaram, Pallavaram and Avadi fared much better than the areas that come under the Greater Chennai Corporation limits.
While Tambaram emerged as no. 62, Pallavaram was ranked at 155 and Avadi 169, according to the rankings released by Urban development minister M. Venkaiah Naidu in New Delhi on Thursday. Towns like Kumbakonam (37), Erode (42), Tiruppur (68), Hosur (82), Velankanni (84), Dindigul (106) and Vellore (108) were way ahead of the state capital in the rankings.
Tiruchy, the gateway to southern Tamil Nadu, was ranked no, 6 and Coimbatore no. 16 across the country. Chennai is the most “unclean city” even among the metropolitan cities of India as Mumbai, New Delhi and Hyderabad fared much better in the rankings.
