Ranchi, Aug 20 (IANS): Jharkhand Chief secretary Sukhdev Singh has expressed happiness over the state being declared the 'Cleanest State' among the less than a hundred Urban local Bodies (ULBs) at the Swachh Survekshan Awards this year.

"We are happy to get this award. We will ensure we keep the momentum going. We have 41 ULBs in the state. The state will ensure that it remains clean" said Sukhdev Singh to IANS.

The Swachh Survekshan awards were announced by Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri in New Delhi on Thursday. It monitors the performance of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, launched in 2014. The survey was conducted in 4,242 cities, 62 cantonment boards and 92 Ganga towns and was completed in 28 days.

Chhattisgarh ranked first in the category of best performing states with more than a hundred urban local bodies, while Jharkhand emerged first in the less than one hundred category.

Indore city in Madhya Pradesh emerged as the cleanest city for the fourth time in a row in the category of more than one lakh population, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development announced on Thursday.

This year, Indore is followed by Surat city in Gujarat and Navi Mumbai in Maharashtra. Meanwhile, in the category of less than one lakh population, Karad, Saswad and Lonavala cities in Maharashtra emerged victorious.

Ahmedabad in Gujarat ranked first in the cleanest mega city category, while Chhattisgarh's Ambikapur secured the cleanest smallest city tag. Bengaluru won the best self-sustainability award in the mega city category and Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh won the award in the small city category.