New Delhi: The Minister of State for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation and Parliamentary Affairs Shri Arjun Ram Meghwal and Minister of State for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation and Human Resource Development Dr Satya Pal Singh addressed a joint press conference today, briefing the media on Swachhta Pakhwada 2018 activities organised by the Ministry from 16th March to 31stMarch 2018.
Shri Arjun Ram Meghwal informed that during this fortnight, more than 100 major events have been organised all over the country, ranging from Rudraprayag, in the North to Chennai, in the South and from Tezpur, in the East to Vadodara in the West. The Ministry, along with all its attached offices, subordinates organisations and PSU’s, took this up as a pan India Mission. Shri Meghwal further informed that over a hundred water bodies were cleaned at various places across the country during this period.
Speaking about the activities of the National Mission for Clean Ganga during this fortnight, MoS Dr Satya Pal Singh said that 34 major events were organized across the Ganga Basin covering 28 towns in the five states of Uttrakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal. The opening and closing ceremony of the Pakhwada were organised at Haridwar and Sangam at Allahabad respectively. Over 40 cultural programmes, 70 exhibitions, 500 nukkad nataks , 100 pad yatras and many painting and essay competitions were organized at various places including Kanpur, Patna, Unnao, Sahibganj, Fatehpur, Rishikesh, Kolkata, Varanasi, Munger and Vrindavan. The emphasis during these programmes was on working for sustainable and long terms contributions towards Swachhta.
Efforts were made to involve more and more children by organising events in schools at different places to inculcate cleanliness values in the nation’s future stakeholders. Innovative works were carried out by restoring, cleaning and deepening of water bodies like dams and ponds .
During the Pakhwada special Yamuna Cleanliness Drive was also organised at seven different locations by officers and staff of the Ministry and its subordinate organisations. A‘Swachhta Sarvekshan’ of all attached offices, subordinate organisations and PSU’s under the Ministry was also carried out during the period. The award for the cleanest organisation was bagged by Centre Water Commission, while the award for adopting ‘Innovative Mechanism for Sustainable Cleanliness’ was given to National Water Academy, Pune for installing a compost machine for production of compost by using dry leaves and other bio-degradable waste from the campus.
The Central Reserve Police Force and Central Industrial Security Force also contributed in the cleanliness activities during the Pakhwada and helped to create awareness about the importance of Swachhta and Making it a part of day to day life.
