New Delhi:Announcing the results of the Star Rating of Garbage Free Cities, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri on Tuesday informed that for the assessment year 2019-2020, a total of six cities have been certified as 5-Star (Ambikapur, Rajkot, Surat, Mysuru, Indore and Navi Mumbai), 65 cities as 3-Star and 70 cities as 1-Star.
While announcing the results of the Star Rating of Garbage Free Cities, here, Mr Puri also launched the revised protocol for the Star Rating of Garbage Free Cities at the event.
The Star Rating Protocol was launched by the Ministry in January 2018 to institutionalize a mechanism for cities to achieve Garbage Free status, and to motivate cities to achieve higher degrees of cleanliness.
Mr Durga Shanker Mishra, Secretary, Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs and senior officials of the Ministry were also present.Addressing the media, the Minister said, ''The importance of sanitation and effective solid waste
management has been brought to the forefront now due to the COVID crisis. In fact, it would not be an exaggeration to say that the present situation could have been much worse had it not been for the critical part that SBM-U has played in the last five years to ensure a high degree of cleanliness and sanitation in urban areas.'' (UNI)