New Delhi: The Centre has earned Rs 1,162 crore from scrap disposal during its special cleanliness drives and plans are afoot to further accelerate it with the help of the states, Union Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh said on Monday (November 20). The cleanliness campaigns carried out at over four lakh sites have resulted in weeding out nearly 96.10 lakh files, including electronic files, besides freeing up 355.50 lakh square feet of space, which can house a huge shopping complex or a mall, he said. The minister told PTI,
As much as Rs 1,162.49 crore has been earned through disposal of office scrap, including e-waste such as old computers and other electronic items. The cleanliness drive has become India’s largest campaign for institutionalising ‘swachata’.
He said without spending a significant sum, the government has been able to earn so many crores of revenue through the cleanliness campaign, “which, in my opinion, is a huge success”.
The revenue of Rs 1,162.49 crore was earned in the three special campaigns carried out by the central government during 2021 to 2023, the minister said.
The minister said Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a call for ‘swachhta (cleanliness)’ from the ramparts of Red Fort in his first Independence Day speech in 2014 and soon it turned into a mass movement. He said,
We have seen tremendous improvement in the office space. There was a time when we had cluttered office spaces with huge piles of files. Through these campaigns, that typical image of the government office space is no longer a reality. The special cleanliness campaign is one big initiative out of several others being taken to improve the overall functioning of the government.
He added that the Centre wants to make the cleanliness campaign a massive mass movement with the help of the state governments. He added,
We are in touch with the state governments. Some of the state governments, including Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, have already taken noteworthy initiatives in this regard. We expect more states to accelerate this drive to make wealth out of waste.
He said the cleanliness campaigns have resulted in a healthier work environment and de-cluttered office spaces. He mentioned,
Government offices have been modernised through the adoption of mechanical cleaning, digital initiatives and compactors for effective records management. Millions of citizens visiting government offices experience a healthier work environment and the adoption of digital portals has led to minimal office visits for them.
The minister said the first edition of the special cleanliness drive covered around 6,154 office sites. He said,
The efforts to enhance the office space and minimise pendency were continued and regular review meetings held to sustain the efforts. The Special Campaign 2.0, held last year, covered around one lakh sites across the country.
During the Special Campaign 3.0 this year, a saturation approach was adopted to cover all field/public-centric offices covering around 2.5 lakh sites. The minister said,
It alone helped in earning around Rs 556 crore of revenue through scrap disposal.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
NDTV – Dettol have been working towards a clean and healthy India since 2014 via the Banega Swachh India initiative, which in its Season 10 is helmed by Campaign Ambassador Ayushmann Khurrana. The campaign aims to highlight the inter-dependency of humans and the environment, and of humans on one another with the focus on One Health, One Planet, One Future – Leaving No One Behind. It stresses on the need to take care of, and consider, everyone’s health in India – especially vulnerable communities – the LGBTQ population, indigenous people, India’s different tribes, ethnic and linguistic minorities, people with disabilities, migrants, geographically remote populations, gender and sexual minorities. In a world post COVID-19 pandemic, the need for WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) is reaffirmed as handwashing is one of the ways to prevent Coronavirus infection and other diseases. The campaign will continue to raise awareness on the same along with focussing on the importance of nutrition and healthcare for women and children, fight malnutrition, mental well-being, self-care, science and health, adolescent health & gender awareness. Along with the health of people, the campaign has realised the need to also take care of the health of the eco-system. Our environment is fragile due to human activity, which is not only over-exploiting available resources, but also generating immense pollution as a result of using and extracting those resources. The imbalance has also led to immense biodiversity loss that has caused one of the biggest threats to human survival – climate change. It has now been described as a “code red for humanity.” The campaign will continue to cover issues like air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and sanitation workers and menstrual hygiene. Banega Swasth India will also be taking forward the dream of Swasth Bharat, the campaign feels that only a Swachh or clean India where toilets are used and open defecation free (ODF) status achieved as part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, can eradicate diseases like diahorrea and the country can become a Swasth or healthy India.
