VIJAYAWADA: In a major push towards building a garbage-free and cleaner Andhra Pradesh, Municipal Administration Minister P Narayana on Friday launched the statewide ‘Operation Clean Sweep’ campaign, a four-week intensive sanitation and public awareness drive aimed at transforming municipalities into fully clean urban centres through active public participation. The programme was inaugurated in Vijayawada in the presence of local MLA Bonda Umamaheswara Rao, Swachh Andhra Corporation Chairman K Pattabhiram, Municipal Administration Principal Secretary S Suresh Kumar and other officials.
Speaking on the occasion, Narayana said the campaign was designed to create awareness on cleanliness and encourage public participation in sanitation activities. He said the first week would focus on cleaning roads and public places, the second week on drain cleaning with public participation, the third week on waste segregation awareness, and the final week on cleaning public toilets.
The minister stated that the government had already cleared 85 lakh tonnes of legacy waste lying above ground out of the 153 lakh tonnes left behind across the State and was working to clear the remaining underground waste by the end of June. He added that waste-to-energy are already functioning in Visakhapatnam and Guntur while six more plants were under construction.
Pattabhiram said AP was striving to become a national model in cleanliness through public participation, while Suresh Kumar stressed that maintaining cleanliness was a collective responsibility of citizens and sanitation workers.