New Delhi, November 20, 2021: Chhattisgarh was today awarded with the national award for being the “Cleanest State” in the country. Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel received the award at the hands of President Ram Nath Kovind at the Swachh Amrit Mahotsav held at Vigyan Bhawan here.
Under Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban), Chhattisgarh was also awarded with the best state award first prize in Safai Mitra Suraksha Challenge 2021.
Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri and Minister of State Kaushal Kishore and Sikkim Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang were present at the function.
Chhattisgarh Urban Development Minister Dr Shiv Kumar Dahariya, Additional chief secretary Subrat Sahu, Chhattisgarh Urban Administration and Development Secretary Alarmelmangai D, Resident Commissioner M Geetha and Mission Director and CEO SUDA Saumil Ranjan Chaubey also attended the function.
Chhattisgarh has been given the award for maintaining its status as the cleanest State. Apart from the State, its 67 urban bodies will also be rewarded for their excellent performance, the highest number of urban bodies in any state. Chhattisgarh was also a leading state in terms of cleanliness in the year 2019 and 2020.
On this occasion, the Chief Minister said that Chhattisgarh has won the National award for the cleanest state for the third consecutive year, so the credit goes to three and a half crore people of Chhattisgarh. I would especially like to give credit to the women of the state, who have created a new culture of cleanliness from cities to villages.
Chhattisgarh is the only state where, more than 9,000 cleanliness 'didis' are collecting 1,600 tonnes of wet and dry waste from houses and scientifically disposing them off. The Centre has also been declared Chhattisgarh as the first ODF plus plus state of the country.
Raipur, Patan, Bhilai Charoda, Birgaon (M), Chirmiri, Bhatapara, Kawardha, Bemetara, Jashpur Nagar, Dipka, Dornapal, Chandrapur, Utai, Abhanpur etc are some of the cities of which were also awarded at the function in different categories.
The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs conducts the annual cleanliness survey in all cities and states. The survey is done through third party assessment under various parameters such as citizens’ feedback on door-to-door garbage collection, scientific disposal of waste, open defecation free city and garbage free city etc.
On the basis of the assessment, ranking of states and cities are done. The best performing states and cities are rewarded.
Mayors receive award
Raipur Mayor Ejaz Dhebar, Ambikapur Mayor Ajay Tirkey, Bhilai Charoda Mayor Chandrakant Mandle, Bilaspur Mayor Ramsharan Yadav, Chirmiri Mayor Kanchan Jaiswal, Raigarh Mayor Janki Amrit Katju, Korba Mayor Rajkishore Prasad, Rajnandgaon Mayor Hemasudesh Deshmukh, Durg Mayor Dheeraj Bakliwal as well as Municipal Commissioners, Municipality Presidents, Chief Municipal Officers, Nodal Officers were awarded for Clean Survey, Garbage Free City.
How Chhattisgarh performed in Cleanliness?
It is a great achievement for Chhattisgarh that out of 239 awards given by the President in the field of cleanliness, 67 are of Chhattisgarh. More than 10 thousand cleanliness didis are behind this success. In more than 7 thousand 500 Gauthans of villages, 70 thousand women of about 5 thousand self-help groups are engaged in improving the environment through various activities. The state government took the initiative of connecting the cleanliness campaign with the flagship Narva-Garwa-Ghurva-Bari program.
The state emphasized on ban of single use plastic, worked on the basis of 6-R policy i.e. Rethink, Reuse, Recycle, Repair, Reduce, Refuge, this reduced the amount of new waste generation, building community and public toilets in habitations, building faecal sludge treatment plants for human sewage management, where sewer water is treated.
To make people aware, Swachhata Didis went door-to-door and trained people to keep wet and dry waste separately. Toll free number 1100 has been arranged for the disposal of sanitation related complaints of citizens within 24 hours. All public and community toilets were linked to Google so that people can search the toilet near them on the phone itself. Godhan Nyay Yojana increased both cleanliness and income.
(This press release was issued by the Chhattisgarh government.)