Longleng has been named the ‘State First Swachh City of Nagaland’ at the Swachh Survekshan Awards 2025–26, giving the town national recognition for its cleanliness and civic sanitation efforts. The award was presented at a ceremony at Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi on Wednesday, with President Droupadi Murmu presenting awards to winning cities across categories.
Kuolie Mere, deputy director and senior public relations officer of Nagaland’s information and public relations department, received the award on behalf of the state government. Union housing and urban affairs minister Manohar Lal and his deputy, Tokhan Sahu, were also present at the ceremony.
The recognition places Longleng among the towns assessed through the latest Swachh Survekshan exercise, which evaluates urban cleanliness through multiple operational and citizen-facing indicators. The assessment parameters for 2025–26 included visible cleanliness, waste segregation and transportation, solid waste management, access to sanitation, used water management and the mechanisation of desludging services.
The survey also examined how cities promote sanitation practices and respond to citizen feedback and complaints. This makes the award broader than a one-time cleanliness drive: the stated assessment covers the daily systems through which a town collects, moves and manages waste, maintains sanitation access, handles used water and addresses residents’ concerns.
In a statement, Longleng Town Council administrator Thungchanbemo Tungoe described the award as a proud moment for the town council and the citizens of Longleng. He said the recognition showed that a small town could set an example in cleanliness and civic responsibility through unity, discipline and shared responsibility.
The administrator’s statement places residents alongside the town council in the account of Longleng’s achievement. That emphasis is significant because the Swachh Survekshan framework includes citizen feedback and redressal, linking municipal performance with the way residents experience sanitation services and communicate their concerns to local authorities.
For a town council, the award also brings attention to the administrative work behind visible cleanliness. Waste segregation requires households and establishments to separate waste, while transportation and solid waste management depend on regular collection, movement and disposal arrangements. Sanitation access, used water management and desludging services require additional municipal coordination, although the supplied award announcement does not provide operational details or performance figures for Longleng.
The award was announced alongside the national results of Swachh Survekshan 2025–26. Navi Mumbai was named the country’s cleanest city, followed by Surat and Vijayawada. The national rankings provide the wider setting for Longleng’s state-level recognition, while the town-specific announcement identifies Longleng as Nagaland’s first recipient in the category.
The award does not, by itself, establish how Longleng performed on each individual parameter or whether the town’s systems have changed over time. The available announcement also does not specify the score, ranking methodology, inspection schedule or future municipal commitments. The immediate next step is the town council’s continued responsibility for the sanitation and civic systems assessed under the survey.
