Mangaluru : A survey by the Union Ministry of Urban Development has rated Mangaluru as the third cleanest among 476 cities across the country.

The sanitation rating was for 2013-15 based on 19 indicators. Mysuru has bagged the first rank followed by Greater Mumbai Municipal Corporation.

Mangaluru scored 64.74 points, Mysuru 65.09 points, and Greater Mumbai Municipal Corporation 64.91 points, a March 11, 2016 letter to urban local bodies by the Ministry said.

Mangaluru City Corporation received the letter through e-mail on Tuesday.

Addressing media here on Tuesday, Mayor Harinath said: “The rating measured the sanitation performance of cities on 19 indicators in line with the National Urban Sanitation Policy 2008,” he said and added that it was the second sanitation rating of 476 cities.

H.N. Gopalakrishna, Commissioner, said the assessment was done based on indicators such as quality of drinking water, whether open defecation has been prevented, solid waste management, maintenance of underground drainage system and so on.

Madhu S. Manohar, Environment Engineer at the corporation, said in the immediate last rating (first one) done for 2011-13 and announced in 2014, Mangaluru had bagged 11th rank. Now, its position has gone up.

He said that the Ministry has also mentioned about the issues to be addressed in the city to improve the ranking. Some of them are improvement in the quality of drinking water, prevention of pollution of water bodies, prevention of diarrhoeal diseases, improvement in the collection of solid waste, and cost recovery from sewerage system by imposing cess.

The city corporation effective from 2016-17 has imposed cess as Rs. 15 a month per residential house for using the underground drainage facility of the corporation, he said.

Mr. Harinath said the corporation would make all efforts to get top ranking in the next survey likely to be conducted between October and December, 2016.