Uttar Pradesh has won seven awards under various schemes for sanitation and cleanliness run by the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation (DDWS).
This was announced by the department on Monday.
The DDWS had launched three campaigns last year. The first was a six-month campaign called Swachh Sundar Samudayik Shauchalaya (SSSS) for clean public toilets, launched between November 1, 2019 and April 30, 2020. Then came a four-month campaign from June 15 to September 15, 2020, called Samudayik Shauchalaya Abhiyan (SSA) which was to mobilise districts and villages to construct and maintain community toilets. The third was a week-long campaign, between August 8-15, 2020, called Gandagi Mukt Bharat (GMB) to free the country of garbage and waste.
Under the first campaign, the state will be awarded the top prize. The district level first, second and third prizes under the same campaign have also come to the state. Prayagraj, Hardoi and Fatehpur are to be awarded in the said category. UP also won the award for campaign efforts made under the Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan (GKRA) launched to give 125 days of work to returning migrant labourers. Under the non-GKRA category, Aligarh has won the first prize. The state has also been placed first on shramdaan for the GMB campaign.
The state government shared this information with a note that said Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath was known to create records even in distress. “Under his leadership, even in the midst of the pandemic, the state has set new records under the GKRA,” it said.
The awards, which were notified to the state government on Monday, will be handed out in a virtual ceremony on October 2, celebrated as the Swachh Bharat Diwas in honour of Mahatma Gandhi who placed cleanliness next to godliness. The awards are to be handed over by the Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and his deputy Rattan Lal Kataria.
It is noteworthy that under the Swachh Survekshan, a ranking of the country’s cleanest cities, carried out by the ministry of urban development, not a single city from the state figures in the top 10.
