Pune slips from 10th to 27th in Swachh Survekshan, raising questions over PMC spending

Pune, November 12, 2026: Pune's performance in the Centre's Swachh Survekshan has fallen sharply. Questions are now being raised about the impact of the Pune Municipal Corporation's (PMC) spending on solid waste management, sanitation and environmental improvement.

In the category of cities with a population of over one lakh, Pune has slipped from 10th to 27th place. In the category of cities with over 10 lakh people, the city was eighth last year and has now fallen to 12th.

In the Swachh Vayu Survekshan, which assesses efforts to improve air quality and control pollution, Pune has also been ranked 18th among 50 cities.

Following these results, the Rs 281 crore received from the Centre for measures to curb air pollution in Pune is back in discussion. Given the size of the grant, the city's showing in the air quality assessment raises questions about how the measures were implemented, what effect they had and how the money was spent.

Over the past several years, the PMC has issued tenders worth hundreds of crores of rupees for cleaning, waste management and processing infrastructure. Even so, the garbage problem persists and complaints about cleanliness continue. This suggests the spending has not delivered the expected benefit on the ground.

The Swachh Survekshan is one of the flagship initiatives of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government and has been an important yardstick for assessing the cleanliness of cities across the country. Since the competition began, Pune has generally been among the five or ten cleanest cities in the country. On some occasions its ranking rose and fell, but the city regained its place in subsequent assessments.

However, Pune's ranking has been falling steadily for the past few years. The latest results have pushed it out of the top 10 in both population categories.

One reason for the decline could be the Centre's increasingly stringent assessment criteria. Two key criteria now include 100 per cent treatment of the sewage generated in the city and keeping water bodies free of pollution.

The PMC continues to face the challenge of meeting these conditions. A considerable sum is being spent on solid waste management, but there is concern over the lack of effective measures to protect rivers, lakes and other water bodies from pollution. Falling short on these key criteria has affected the city's overall performance.

The PMC is expected to keep the city clean throughout the year and improve public spaces. However, concern has been voiced that special efforts to meet the Swachh Survekshan criteria are often stepped up only during the survey.

These efforts are said to include focusing on cleaning the sites chosen for inspection and providing facilities such as toilet paper, mirrors, air dryers and round-the-clock water in public toilets.

Questions have also been raised about how public participation is recorded for the survey. It is alleged that, instead of relying wholly on citizens' views, PMC employees are being instructed to register their participation in the citizen feedback process. This has raised doubts over whether the participation figures truly reflect people's opinions and involvement.