New Delhi, July 18 -- Indore was declared the cleanest city among "Super Swachh League Cities" by President Droupadi Murmu on Thursday, as the marquee Swachh Survekshan 2024-25 Awards were announced on Thursday. Indore also emerged as the cleanest city in the one-million-population category, followed by Surat, Navi Mumbai, and Vijayawada. The "Super League" category is a new entrant, in the previous edition of these awards announced in January 2024, Indore emerged as the cleanest city in the country for a record seventh time on the trot. Surat appeared as a joint first, erasing its past legacy as a plague-affected city. This year, Noida, New Delhi Municipal Council, Vita (Maharashtra) and Panchgani were the cleanest cities among three-10 lakh population category, 50,000-3 lakh population, 20,000-50,000 population and cities with less than 20,000 population category cities, respectively. This awards ceremony has been an annual feature since 2016, organised under the centre's Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban by the union ministry of housing and urban affairs (MoHUA). It is publicised by the government as the world's largest urban sanitation and cleanliness survey. Officials said that this time the awards covered 4500 cities, while the 2016 exercise had only covered 73 urban local bodies. A government release said over 3,000 assessors conducted thorough inspections in every ward across the country over 45 days. "With an unwavering commitment to inclusivity and transparency, the initiative encompassed the assessment of over 11 lakh households, reflecting a comprehensive and far-reaching approach to understanding urban living and sanitation on a national scale." The release said the awards were based on 10 well-defined parameters with 54 indicators, offering a complete view of sanitation and waste management in cities. Further, the release said the awards involved public engagement with the involvement of 14 crore people through face-to-face interactions, the Swachhata App, MyGov, and social media platforms. The "Super League" category is a new entrant. It may be recalled that in September 2024, union housing and urban affairs minister Manohar Lal Khattar first introduced the concept of this new elite ranking system as a component of these awards for consistently top-performing cities. This category features cities that have ranked in the top three at least once in the last three years and remain in the top 20% of their respective population category in the current year. A total of 78 awards were announced as part of Thursday's event attended by Khattar....