Swachh ranking ‘politically motivated’

SHILLONG: The State Government believes that the Centre’s cleanliness ranking system, the Swachh Survekshan, for cities is flawed and ‘politically motivated’.
Shillong’s ranking in the national survey has slipped to 276 this year from 53 in 2016.
Sources said a team from New Delhi had inspected the city, which they thought is maintained by one authority. Shillong has a population of 5-6 crore.
Shillong Municipal Board looks after the cleanliness of localities with a population of around 1-2 lakh. The Cantonment Board too is responsible for maintaining cleanliness in a major part of the city.
Besides, there are other local authorities in the city that is active in their respective jurisdictions.
The sources said the ranking of the cities were politically motivated as most of the Congress-ruled States were poorly ranked.
In addition, Shillong also got a negative marking as far as open-defecation is concerned. Open defecation is hardly practised in Shillong.
It was learned that the State Government did not have documents and certificates to prove that Shillong is an open defecation-free city and this led to the drop in its ranking.