Imphal: Jiribam town in Manipur has earned national recognition at the Swachh Survekshan 2025–26, receiving the titles of ‘Promising Swachh Shehar of Manipur 2025-26’ and the state’s first ‘Swachhta City’.
The awards were presented at a ceremony held at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi on Tuesday. President Droupadi Murmu attended the event as the chief guest, alongside Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Manohar Lal and Minister of State Tokhan Sahu.
Representing Manipur at the ceremony were Jiribam Municipal Council Executive Officer Moirangthem Surjit Singh, Sanitary Inspector Sorokhaibam Linthoingambi Devi, IT and ME Department official Lonica Devi, and SBM-MIS representative Th. Shyamanansa Singh.
With this latest achievement, Jiribam Municipal Council has become the first urban local body in Manipur to receive national-level cleanliness recognition for six consecutive years, from 2020 to 2025–26.
Jiribam is also the first town in Manipur to secure both the 3-Star Garbage-Free City (GFC) certification and Open Defecation Free Plus-Plus (ODF++) status, reflecting its progress in urban waste management and sanitation.
In the 2024–25 edition, Jiribam received the ‘Most Promising Town’ recognition, securing the top position among towns with populations below 20,000 in the North Eastern Region. It also ranked 174th among 2,035 towns nationally.
The town had earlier been recognised as the cleanest small city in the North East Zone, in the category of towns with populations below 15,000, in both the 2022 and 2023 editions.
The Swachh Survekshan is an annual cleanliness assessment organised by the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs under the Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban. It evaluates sanitation and cleanliness standards in urban areas across the country.
Officials said the latest recognition reflected the combined efforts of municipal authorities, sanitation workers and local residents in improving cleanliness and sanitation in Jiribam.