Context:

• Recently Minister of Railways and Commerce & Industry has released the “Stations’ Cleanliness Survey Report” (Cleanliness assessment of Non-suburban and Suburban Stations 2019).

Background:

• Railways have been conducting third party audit and cleanliness ranking of major railway stations annually since 2016. Earlier the survey covered 407 stations, but this year the survey was expanded to include 720 stations. The suburban stations were also brought under the ambit of the survey for the first time.

Basis for Ranking:

• Criteria chosen for Ranking:

1.Process Evaluation

2.Direct Observation

3.Citizen Feedback

• Each of the above criteria carries 33.33% weightage and score is given based on this.
• The total score is out of 1000 and based on the score, the stations under consideration are ranked.

Major Findings of the Report:

• Top Three Railway Zones- North Western Railway followed by South East Central Railway and East Central Railway.
• Top Three Cleanest Railways Stations – Jaipur, Jodhpur and Durgapura. (All 3 are from the western state of Rajasthan).
• Top three suburban stations: Andheri, Virar and Naigaon railway stations.

Similar Efforts in this Regard:

• Single use plastics has been banned completely by the Indian Railways across its premises recently.
• Cleanliness programme is being conducted over 6500 stations across Indian Railways to showcase the efforts putting in by Indian Railways to keep trains, stations and railway premises clean.
• Our present government’s commitment to develop India as a “Clean India, Healthy India and Prosperous India” is also in line with the above efforts.