Pune: Pimpri Chinchwad has emerged as Maharashtra’s cleanest city in the ‘Swachh Survekshan 2025–26’, the cleanliness survey conducted by Union ministry of housing and urban affairs.The city secured first place in the state in the category of cities with a population of over one million. The award was presented at a ceremony held in New Delhi on Wednesday.Civic activists, however, have questioned the recognition, pointing out that the city still has considerable scope for improvement, particularly in waste segregation and disposal facilities.Meanwhile, following the announcement of the awards, opposition leaders in Pune criticised Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), claiming that the civic body had failed to match the performance of its sister city. They also demanded accountability from the officials concerned.According to the ministry, the survey evaluated local self-governing bodies across 43 indicators covering 10 key assessment areas. These included waste segregation, collection and transportation, solid waste management, visible cleanliness, access to sanitation, mechanisation of desludging services, strengthening of the sanitation ecosystem and institutional mechanisms, used water management, advocacy for cleanliness, welfare of sanitation workers and citizen feedback and grievance redressal. More than 3,000 trained assessors conducted extensive on-ground evaluations across the country, supported by real-time GPS-enabled monitoring.“The award is a tribute to the collective efforts of the city. Cleanliness holds a fundamental place in the city’s development and requires active participation from citizens alongside the administration. Winning this award through the recognition of sanitation workers’ efforts and active citizen participation is a matter of pride for the city,” Pimpri Chinchwad mayor Ravi Landge said.“Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) has made the city’s sanitation system more robust, disciplined and effective. The municipal administration placed special emphasis on planned methodology, effective implementation and coordination among various departments. Along with ensuring strict adherence to waste segregation at source, regular collection, scientific processing, recycling and cleanliness of public spaces, we have also focused on the effective use of technology and enhanced field-level monitoring,” said civic commissioner Vijay Suryavanshi.Activists, however, said the award is shocking, and its parameters should be made public.“The mishap at the Moshi garbage depot has exposed PCMC’s poor garbage management. Heaps of garbage are seen in several corners of the city. If PCMC is receiving an award despite such shortcomings in its solid waste management system, it is surprising and shocking,” said activist Manav Kamble.“The parameters and reasons behind the awards should be made public in detail so that citizens can understand why PCMC was selected. As taxpayers, many of us fail to see why our civic body deserves this recognition,” said another activist, Maruti Bhapkar.Prashant Jagtap, a Congress leader in Pune, claimed in a statement that PMC’s performance had deteriorated compared to previous years. He said the civic body had slipped from eighth place in 2024–25 to 12th in 2025–26.“PMC has spent substantial funds claiming to improve its solid waste management system. However, it did not receive any of the major awards in the survey. This shows that the civic body’s claims were hollow,” he said.PMC officials said they would analyse the civic body’s performance once the detailed report was received. “We are yet to receive the parameter-wise details of our performance. Steps to improve the situation will be taken after studying the findings,” said Prajit Nair, additional commissioner of PMC.
