Kolkata 3rd among clean cities,loses in clean roads factor

Kolkata, May 30 (UNI) Despite poor drainage system and high level of pollution, the city has grabbed the third position as the 'most clean city' in the country.

Talking to UNI on the release of Lifebuoy Swasthya Chetna City Meter 2007 report here today, Hindustan Lever Limited Marketing Manager( Personal wash) Punit Mishra said, ''As part of Corporate Social Responsibilty, the company has conducted a survey for the first time among 18 state capitals.'' According to the research conducted by ACNielsen ORG-MARG Pvt Ltd along with Lifebuoy, Kolkata scored in the parameters like greenery and plantations, participation of municipal corporation, efficiency of garbage disposal system and availability of dustbins.

However, it needed to improve on having clean roads, where Chandigarh topped the list followed by Bhubaneswar and Bangalore.

The survey was conducted by taking the opinion of about 300 eminent as well as the common man from all sections of the society.

The report said Chennai ranked first among the top six metros followed by Bangalore. Mumbai was placed at fourth position followed by Delhi and Hyderabad was at the end of the list.

However, the cities above 'all city average' of 100 were Chandigarh(144) marks, Chennai (118), Kolkata and Bangalore (108), Bhubaneswar (106), Lucknow (103) and Thiruvananthapuram (102).

Mumbai and Delhi were below average with a same score of 99.

Talking about the Swasthya Chetna, Mr Mishra said,''We have been promoting health and hygiene since 2002 and have conducted Swastya Chetna in about 30,000 villages in eight states to make people aware of basic hygiene.'' He further added that 50 per cent people in India die of diarrhoea and through CSR the company was trying to eradicate the menace.

Present on the occasion, Kolkata Municipal Commissioner Alapan Bandopadhyaya said the corporation would focus on the road conditions and assured the people to make the city 'numero uno' in the coming year.

UNI