Highlights
- The government announced the 2nd phase of Swachh Iconic Places initiative
- This will cover 10 heritage and spiritual places around the country
- The aim is to improve cleanliness, sanitation and basic amenities
New Delhi: These may draw tourists and pilgrims by the lakhs, but the cleanliness and basic amenities often remain ignored at some of India’s heritage and spiritual places. To remedy this, the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation has announced special clean-up drives for ten such places which include Hyderabad’s Char Minar, the Somnath Temple and the Yamunotri and Gangotri temples. This will be the second phase of the Swachh Bharat Mission’s Swachh Iconic Places (SIP) initiative which was first announced in June 2016.
According to a government release, these 10 places “are to be brought to a higher standard of swachhta and visitors’ amenities”. These plans will be implemented by the concerned local bodies and partnering Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs), says the Ministry of Sanitation and Drinking Water.
#SwachhBharatMission has announced 10 new Iconic places to be taken under the Phase II of Swachh Iconic Places initiative. pic.twitter.com/lAQBQMhxxo
— Swachh Bharat I #AzadiKaAmritMahotsav (@swachhbharat) May 11, 2017
The decision to include these places and roll out the second phase of the initiative was taken at a quarterly review meeting presided by Union Minister for Drinking Water and Sanitation Narendra Singh Tomar on April 25 at the Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine in Katra, Jammu and Kashmir.
While work on the second phase will start, the on-going process of implementing action plans chalked out under the initiative’s first phase will continue, says the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation. The places included in the first phase were Ajmer Sharif Dargah, CST Mumbai, Golden Temple, Amritsar, Kamakhya Temple, Assam, Manikarnika Ghat, Varanasi, Meenakshi Temple, Madurai, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi, Shree Jagannath Temple, Puri, The Taj Mahal and Tirupati Temple, Tirumala.
The Swachh Iconic Places initiative’s ultimate aim is to clean-up and improve amenities in 100 iconic heritage, spiritual and cultural places across the country.
Here is the complete list of the places that have been included in the second phase:
1. Gangotri Temple, Uttarakhand
2. Yamunotri Temple, Uttarakhand
3. Gaya Tirth, Bihar
4. Baijnath Dham, Devghar, Jharkhand
5. Char Minar, Hyderabad, Telangana
6. Adi Shankaracharya’s Abode Kaladi, Ernakulam, Kerala
7. Gomateshwar, Shravanbelgola, Karnataka
8. Somnath Temple, Gujarat
9. Church and Convent of St. Francis of Assisi, Goa
10. Mahakaleshwar Temple, Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh
Concern
May 12, 2017 at 4:57 pm
There is an illegal religious structure abutting the Charminar. Water tanks and other material relating to this structure are present right inside the heritage structure. The authorities instead of removing these have cordoned off the area, hope this special clean up drive removes the encroachments as well.
Raja
May 12, 2017 at 6:38 pm
Government should think of Taj Mahal which is attracting lot of foreigners and foreign exchange. Like Taj, there are other places which require cleanness and basic amentities.