The Centre has decided to conduct a two-month nationwide survey from January 4, 2018, to assess the status of cleanliness in 4,000 cities across the country.

Announcing the rollout of ’Cleanliness Survey 2018’ during his monthly Man Ki Baat radio talk, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the nationwide exercise to be undertaken in the new year would be "the largest in the world".

"The Cleanliness Survey 2018 will be conducted from January 4 to March 10, 2018, to evaluate achievements in cleanliness in our urban areas. This survey will cover a population of more than 40 crore in more than 4,000 cities," he said.

The survey will take stock of the status of the practice of open defecation in cities, system for garbage collection, transport facilities to lift garbage, processing of garbage using scientific methods, efforts taken to usher in behavioural changes with regard to cleanliness, innovative steps taken for capacity building to maintain cleanliness and public participation in the Clean India campaign, the prime minister said.

"Separate teams will go to cities for inspection. They will talk to people and gather their reactions. They will analyse the use of the Cleanliness App and also about bringing reforms and improvements in various kinds of service centres," he said.

The survey teams would also see as to whether the cities have created a system to ensure that cleanliness becomes "a public habit".

"It is not for the government alone to maintain cleanliness. Every citizen and people’s organisation has a big responsibility," he said.

All the cities will be ranked based on the survey results, he said.

"If your city has a population of more than one lakh, ranking will be done at the national level and if the population of your city is less than one lakh, then it will be ranked at the regional level," he said.

The prime minister appealed to people to "actively participate" in the survey. "Take the full onus to ensure that your city does not lag behind. I am very sure that using blue and green dustbins to collect dry and wet garbage respectively has become your habit by now," he said.