Warangal Urban District tops Swachhata Darpan rankings

Warangal: Warangal Urban District has stood at the top of national rankings in the Swachhata Darpan Phase-III for open defecation-free (ODF) under the Swachh Bharat Mission. It was a notable achievement considering the fact that the rankings are exclusively based on the performance indicators with data available in the Management Information System (MIS) on open defecation-free (ODF) and ODF post activities.

Performance, sustainability and transparency are the key indicators for the rankings. Warangal Urban District Collector Prashanth Jeevan Patil said, "Warangal Urban stood first among the 700 odd districts in the country.

The ranking has been given based on construction of individual household latrine (IHHL), verification, geo-tagging, Information, Education and Communication (IEC) activities, community toilets, soak pits and compost pits." Warangal Urban secured 100/100 marks in each indicator, he said.

The Collector attributed the credit to Minister for Panchayat Raj Errabelli Dayakar Rao, MPs, legislators and officials for achieving first rank at the national level. It is learnt that Jagtial, Kamareddy, Peddapally, Rajanna Sircilla and Karimnagar district were next after Warangal Urban District in the rankings.

The rankings of other districts in erstwhile Warangal Jangaon 88th; Warangal Rural 108th; Mahabubabad 308th; Incidentally, Jayashankar Bhupalpally fared badly by securing 547th rank at the national level and last in the State level.

Meanwhile, a seven-member Central team is set to visit the Urban district from August 17 to 19. During the field inspection, the team will assess the progress of construction of IHHL and community toilets, besides functioning of Anganwadi centres and schools, the Collector said.