Itanagar: Arunachal Pradesh’s Jairampur town in Changlang district has been declared a ‘Promising Swachh Shehar’ in the central government’s annual cleanliness survey.
The ‘Swachh Survekshan’ awards were presented by Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs Manohar Lal during a ceremony in New Delhi in the presence of President Droupadi Murmu and other dignitaries.
State Urban Affairs Minister Balo Raja and Urban Affairs Commissioner Vivek Pandey accepted the prestigious award on behalf of Arunachal Pradesh.
This recognition highlights the dedicated efforts of Jairampur’s urban local body, its sanitation workers, and the active participation of residents.
It also signifies a significant achievement for the state’s urban development initiatives under the Swachh Bharat Mission – Urban (SBM-U).
Ahmedabad was named the cleanest large city, followed by Bhopal and Lucknow. Meanwhile, Indore, Surat, Navi Mumbai, and Vijayawada were elevated to a new ‘Super Swachh League Cities’ category for their exceptional performance in sanitation.
Following the awards ceremony, a meeting of urban development ministers was held in the national capital where Raja urged the Centre to revise funding policies for hilly and northeastern states.
He recommended lowering the population eligibility criteria to 5,000 for small towns and district headquarters, citing the exclusion of many deserving areas under current per capita-based models like SBM-U and AMRUT.
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Highlighting Arunachal Pradesh’s over 80 percent forest cover, Raja emphasized the necessity of equitable urban development in frontier regions. He also called for a separate, more flexible funding mechanism specifically for the Northeast.
