Surprise, Surprise! Mangalore Tops List of Most Hygenic Districts in Country

Belgaum, May 5 (Deccan Chronicle): It's official. Most districts in Karnataka have miserable sanitation says the World Bank.

Only three districts have made it among the top 50 in the survey conducted by the bank, with Mangalore topping the list of 593 districts in the country. The other two in the top 50 are Udupi (rank 11) and Shimoga (rank 13).

Kolhapur district made it to the second spot followed by Ernakulam, Kozikode, Malpuram and Trissur in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth spots respectively.

Despite the implementation of sanitation programmes at regular intervals, many of the districts of north-Karnataka are not hygienic, says the survey. Belgaum district where the government spent crores on sanitation over the last two years comes 203rd in the list, but tops the districts of north Karnataka .

The World Bank survey took into consideration the construction of toilets, utilisation of funds and Nirmal Gram Puraskar prize money, work done by local bodies and people’s participation among other issues, when making its assessment.

Mangalore which emerged first in the country, does not have toilets for 17,746 houses but impressed the World Bank in all other departments.

The state as a whole, has however, failed the sanitation test despite the Rs 100 crore sanctioned for each of the eight city corporations for their sanitation programmes.

Like Belgaum where the city corporation has failed to effectively dispose its waste, other corporations too, except for Udupi and Mangalore, have not been serious about sanitation.