A post is being shared widely on social media with a claim that the Swachh Survekshan ranks of Vijayawada, Tirupati and Visakhapatnam dropped from 5, 6 and 7 ranks in 2018 (under the TDP government) to 6, 12, and 17 ranks in 2020 (under the YSRCP government) respectively. Let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Swachh Survekshan ranks of Vijayawada, Tirupati and Visakhapatnam dropped from 5, 6 and 7 ranks in 2018 (under the TDP government) to 6, 12, and 17 ranks in 2020 (under the YSRCP government) respectively.
Fact: While it is true that the Swachh Survekshan ranks of Vijayawada, Tirupati and Visakhapatnam were 5, 6, and 7 ranks respectively in 2018 under the TDP government, the rankings of those cities also dropped to 12, 8, and 23 ranks respectively in 2019 under the TDP government. The 2019 rankings were not mentioned in the post to mislead people that the drop in rankings occurred under the YSRCP government. Actually, the rankings of Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada improved under the YSRCP government i.e. in 2020 when compared to 2019 rankings. Hence the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
In the post, it can be observed that the ‘Swachh Survekshan 2019’ rankings of the mentioned cities were missing. On looking at the ‘Swachh Survekshan 2018’ and ‘Swachh Survekshan 2019’ rankings, it was found that the Swachh Survekshan ranks of Vijayawada, Tirupati and Visakhapatnam were 5, 6, and 7 ranks respectively in 2018 under the TDP government, but the rankings of those cities also dropped to 12, 8, and 23 ranks respectively in 2019 under the TDP government. Actually, the rankings of Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada improved under the YSRCP government i.e. in ‘Swachh Survekshan 2020’ when compared to 2019 rankings. The 2019 rankings were not mentioned in the post to mislead people that the drop in rankings occurred under the YSRCP government.
When a similar tweet was made by TDP leader Nara Lokesh attributing the 2019 ranks to YSRCP government, FACTLY has then written a fact-check article saying that ‘Swachh Survekshan 2019’ rankings were published during the TDP government itself.
On 20 August 2020, YSRCP MP Vijayasai Reddy has tweeted (archived) that the rank of Visakhapatnam improved to 9 as against the 23rd rank in the previous rankings.
But Visakhapatnam was ranked 23rd in the ‘Swachh Survekshan 2019’ in the category of ‘More than 1 lakh population’. In that category, Visakhapatnam was ranked 17th in the ‘Swachh Survekshan 2020’. Visakhapatnam is ranked 9th in the category of ‘More than 10 lakh population’. So, the rank of Visakhapatnam in two different categories is being compared to mislead people.
To sum it up, the rankings are being selectively picked to mislead people.
