Hardeep Singh Puri said areas in the NCR were doing better than Delhi in cleanliness.
The New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) area was ranked the cleanest in the national capital, followed by Delhi Cantonment in the central government's cleanliness survey.
The South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) and the North Delhi Municipal Corporation were the worst performers in the city, according to the survey results which were announced on Tuesday by Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri.
The NDMC bagged 20th rank nationally in the first quarter (April to June), while it slipped to the 75th spot in the second-quarter results (July-September).
The East Delhi Municipal Corporation's (EDMC) ranking in the first quarter was 2304, but it improved to 1116 in the second quarter.
While North MCD's ranking dropped from 2974 to 3722 in the second quarter, SDMC's ranking improved from 3871 to 1239.
Delhi Cantonment was ranked at 373 in the first quarter and improved to 156th spot in the second quarter.
Hardeep Singh Puri has blamed Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for being "solely responsible" for Delhi's "poor" ranking in the cleanliness survey.
He said other areas in the National Capital Region (NCR) were doing better than Delhi in cleanliness.