Patna has been named Bihar’s cleanest city after the Patna Municipal Corporation received the ‘State First Clean City’ award at the Swachh Survekshan 2025-26 ceremony in New Delhi on Wednesday, giving the civic body its third consecutive recognition in the national cleanliness survey.
President Droupadi Murmu presented the award to a PMC delegation that included urban development and housing minister Nitish Mishra, mayor Sita Sahu, deputy mayor Reshmi Kumari, department secretary Sandeep Kumar R Pudakalkatti and municipal commissioner Yashpal Meena. Two sanitation workers, Amarjeet Manjhi from the New Capital Circle and Rocky Paswan from the Azimabad Circle, were also part of the delegation.
The inclusion of the sanitation workers highlighted the operational workforce behind the city’s waste management services. PMC officials attributed the latest recognition to door-to-door waste collection, scientific disposal of legacy waste, faster grievance redressal and continuing improvements in solid waste management. They also cited greater public participation in cleanliness drives as a factor in the city’s performance.
The award comes as municipal bodies face the challenge of converting cleanliness campaigns into dependable daily services. For residents, the effectiveness of these systems is experienced through the regularity of waste collection, the removal of accumulated waste, the handling of complaints and the cleanliness of public areas. PMC’s stated performance reflects progress in these service areas, although the award itself does not provide a separate assessment of each service in the supplied report.
Mayor Sita Sahu dedicated the recognition to Patna’s residents and said the civic body remained committed to advancing the objective of a cleaner city under the Swachh Bharat Mission. Deputy mayor Reshmi Kumari credited sanitation workers and residents, adding that maintaining cleanliness required public participation alongside municipal initiatives.
Meena said PMC was working on projects intended to strengthen sanitation and waste management infrastructure. These include a waste-to-energy plant for the Patna cluster, complete remediation of legacy waste, an integrated solid waste management system, new sewage treatment plants and enforcement measures such as mobile courts.
The latest recognition follows a series of improvements cited by the civic body. In 2023, Patna topped Bihar, secured Water Plus certification and received a one-star Garbage Free City rating. In 2024, it improved to a three-star Garbage Free City rating and received the ‘Promising Swachh Shehar’ award.
PMC’s next stated priorities are the planned waste-to-energy facility, legacy-waste remediation, integrated solid waste management, sewage treatment plants and enforcement measures. The award ceremony marks the latest milestone, while the implementation of these projects will determine how the city’s sanitation systems develop beyond the survey recognition.
