Distorted facts defaming Silchar, "Dirtiest city in Northeast", wait before you share that link

The link of a news item is doing rounds on Social Media which states that Silchar is the dirtiest city in Northeast. The news report attributes the statistics to Swachh Survekshan and mentions that the results were declared on Wednesday.

People of Silchar started tagging DC Cachar, Rajdeep Roy, and others and sharing it on Facebook with an opinion of their own. The news item was published on the website on October 3, 2019, (Thursday) and it said that the Swachh Survekshan results were declared on Wednesday. It does not mention which Wednesday.

Here are the facts that are misleading. Yes, the Swacch Survekshan 2019 was released on a Wednesday but it was March 6, 2019, not the recent Wednesday, i.e October 2. 2019. It is not a piece of recent news at all. In fact, in that news report nowhere it is mentioned that the results were announced on March 6 earlier this year.

It is also important to understand what is Swacch Survekshan, but before that here is a statement from the ministry, “Swachh Survekshan 2020 will be conducted in January 2020. It will be organised through citizen engagement that means citizen feedback or indicators involving citizen participation. Swachh Survekshan is an annual survey of cleanliness, hygiene and sanitation in cities and towns across India.” So the ones who are believing that the published news is of SS2020, please note, the survey has not yet been conducted forget the results. This is a survey that the ministry conducts in a few cities across India, not all.

Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MOHUA) conducts the survey only on the cities across the country that participate, not all cities. The 2019 survey was conducted January 4, 2019, to February 4, 2019 in which Guwahati was ranked 303, Nagaon – 370, Dibrugarh – 415, and Silchar – 423. In 2018, Silchar was ranked 427 so this year it moved up four steps. It is true that Silchar is not as clean as it should be there is no evidence that it is the dirtiest city in Assam or Northeast at this stage or if it ever was. One must understand, India hosts more than 4000 cities, how can 423 be the dirtiest? The SS 2019 said out of the participating cities Silchar ranked 423 which was third from the bottom in the list.

Here is a detailed report Barak Bulletin published on March 7, 2019, after SS 2019 results were declared. Swachh Survekshan 2019 Result Is Out: Silchar Ranks 423

The fact is since March 2019, a lot of initiatives have been taken to generate awareness among people. DC Cachar Laya Madduri along with Silchar Municipality board did a lot of on-ground activities to ensure Silchar marches ahead towards Cleanliness or Swacchata. Cleanliness has been the keyword in almost each and every speech of the newly elected member of parliament, Silchar, Rajdeep Roy Minister in Assam Government, Parimal Suklabadiya, MLA, Dilip Paul and other political leaders.

One must wait for the next Swacch Survekshan results to be declared before running a defamatory headline like “Silchar is the dirtiest city in Northeast”. Rome was not built in a day, Silchar won’t become Indore (cleanliest city as per the same list) overnight either. But it is true that the city if not walking, the city is at least crawling towards cleanliness…