Centre Launches Third Cleanliness Campaign With Eye On Creating ‘Wealth From Waste’

New Delhi: The Centre on Thursday (September 14) launched its third cleanliness drive with a focus on remote offices having a larger public interface besides creating wealth through the disposal of waste among other things. Launching the initiative here, Union Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has transformed the ‘Swachhata’ campaign into a mass movement. Minister Singh said,

Same administration, same officials, only the leadership was lacking. The Prime Minister turned the mission on hygiene and cleanliness into a jan-andolan and it was imbibed by the people as a social reform movement. This demonstrated the intent of the government that it will address the fundamental issues facing the common man in a mission mode.

He said the special campaign is being launched at a time when the nation is in an upbeat mood following the unprecedented success of the G20 Summit under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and India’s space feats of Chandrayaan-3 and Aditya L1 solar mission.

Minister Singh said the Swachhata campaign, the first mass awareness campaign launched by PM Modi on August 15, 2014, has changed the work culture that has been amply demonstrated by the flawless execution and successful hosting of the G20 Summit.

He said over 90 per cent of file work has been made online under the e-office portal and the campaign has ensured productive use of open spaces as some of the departments like the postal have converted “junkyard to courtyard”.

Also Read: Municipal Corporation of Delhi To Remove ‘Mini Garbage Mountains’ Under Cleanliness Campaign 

The special campaign 3.0 will be preceded by the preparatory phase from September 15 to 30, 2023. During this period, ministries/departments will identify the pendency in selected categories and finalise the campaign sites.

The Government of India has announced special campaign 3.0 from October 2 to 31, 2023 with a focus on cleanliness and reducing pendency in government offices. A statement issued by the Personnel Ministry said,

Special campaign 3.0 will focus on field/outstation offices responsible for service delivery or having public interface, in addition to the ministries/departments and their attached/subordinate offices. Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) is the nodal department for implementation of special campaign 3.0.

Secretary, DARPG and Department of Pensions and Pensioners’ Welfare V Srinivas; Secretary, Posts, Vineet Pandey; Secretary, Railway Board, Milind K Deuoskar and Arun Singhal, DG, National Archives of India also addressed the function.

Earlier, talking to PTI, Srinivas had said that the success of the ‘special campaign 2.0’ was institutionalised with all ministries or departments conducting the Swachhata campaign for three hours per week throughout the year. The officer had said on Tuesday,

Since the conduct of the Swacchata campaign 2.0 in October 2022, the drive has been held at 1.37 lakh sites so far, generating Rs 520 crore from scrap items. As many as 50 lakh files were weeded out, 172 lakh sq ft of office space freed up and 31.35 lakh public grievances cases redressed during the second phase of the cleanliness campaign.

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Mr. Srinivas had said that by October 31, 2023, a cumulative progress of Rs 1,000 crore can be expected from disposal of office scrap besides another 100 lakh sq ft of office space was likely to be freed up during the month-long third phase of the campaign.

The launch ceremony was attended by nodal officers of public grievances and appellate authorities in all 84 central government ministries/departments.

(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 is helmed by Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan. 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 – theLGBTQ population,indigenous people, India’s different tribes, ethnic and linguistic minorities, people with disabilities, migrants, geographically remote populations, gender and sexual minorities. In wake of the currentCOVID-19 pandemic, the need for WASH (Water,SanitationandHygiene) 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, fightmalnutrition, mental wellbeing, 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 likeair pollution,waste management,plastic ban,manual scavengingand sanitation workers andmenstrual hygiene. Banega Swasth India will also be taking forward the dream of Swasth Bharat, the campaign feels that only a Swachh or clean India wheretoiletsare used andopen defecation free (ODF)status achieved as part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan launched byPrime Minister Narendra Modiin 2014, can eradicate diseases like diahorrea and the country can become a Swasth or healthy India.