Sikkim has been adjudged the cleanest State while Jharkhand comes last in the list on the condition of sanitation in rural areas of 26 states. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home State, Gujarat is ranked 14th.

The results of the survey carried out last year by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) was released on Thusday by Union Rural Development Minister Narendra Singh Tomar here.

Following Sikkim come Kerala, Mizoram, Himachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Haryana, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Manipur and Meghalaya among the top 10 States.

T.N. among bottom



The States which fared poorly in the study include Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Jammu and Kashmir. NDA major BJP is ruling or sharing power in five of the States that have been placed at the bottom of the list.

The NSSO conducted the survey in May-June 2015 covering 73,176 households in 3,788 villages across the country. The ranking given on the basis of percentage of households having access to sanitary toilets and using them (either household or community toilets).

Sikkim scored 98.2 per cent on a scale of 100. Kerala scored 96.4 while neighbouring Tamil Nadu notched up just 39.2.

Mr. Tomar, who also heads the Drinking Water and Sanitation Ministry, which released the report, maintained that the survey was conducted in 2015 and a “lot of changes have taken place since then” in the Swachh Bharat campaign.

Asked why non-BJP or NDA ruled states did better in 2015, Mr. Tomar said the campaign “is for all”.