Mandi in Himachal Pradesh and Sindhudurg in Maharashtra have emerged the cleanest districts in India according to a report released in New Delhi by Drinking Water and Sanitation Minister Narendra Singh Tomar.

• A total of 22 hill districts and 53 plain areas were assessed under the Gramin Swachh Survekshan launched in May this year. Mandi was judged as the cleanest district in ‘Hills’ category and Sindhudurg cleanest in the ‘Plains’ category.

• Besides, the districts of Shimla (Himachal Pradesh), Nadia (West Bengal) and Satara (Maharashtra) feature at the top of the index.

• Each district has been judged on four distinct parameters. Maximum weightage was placed on accessibility to safe toilets and water. The parameters to judge sanitation status include households having access to safe toilets, households having no litter around, public places with no litter in the surrounding and households having no stagnant waste water.

• Mr Tomar congratulated the district administrators, councillors and gram panchayats of all the 75 districts which were assessed for participating in the survey.