Shimla, July 18 -- Exposing the lack of cleanliness in Queen of hills- Shimla has slipped to third place in the state and plummeted to 347th place nationally out of 824 cities in the Swachh Survekshan 2024-25 rankings released on Thursday. The state capital Shimla which was ranked as the cleanest city in Himachal Pradesh since 2015, has now fallen to third place. Theog was judged as the cleanest urban local body (UBL) of the Himachal Pradesh followed by the Nadaun in district Hamirpur. The survey findings show that although Shimla has improved cleanliness in residential colonies and marketplaces, it lagged in key areas such as door-to-door garbage collection, segregation of wet and dry waste, waste disposal systems, and the cleaning of drinking water sources. Out of a total score of 7,500, Shimla managed to score only 4,798 points."We have decided to challenge this ranking. We will definitely put our side before the concerned authorities. Apparently, there is something wrong with the process under which the survey was conducted in Shimla. Shimla urban local body is doing excellent work in many areas including door-to-door garbage collection; segregation of garbage etc but in this category Shimla was given very less marks. We are studying the results in depth," said a senior MC official not willing to be named. Last year, Shimla stood at 188th position nationwide, but this year, it failed to make it to the list of top 300 cleanest cities this year....