BENGALURU: Karnataka bagged the first prize in the “Swachata hi Seva” campaign by the Jal Shakti Ministry for taking up a string of cleanliness initiatives across 28,000 villages by involving the highest number of people over 15 days.
Additional Chief Secretary of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department LK Ateeq told TNIE that the drive is taken up every year, and for the first time, Karnataka has reached the milestone. Haveri district bagged the first spot in Karnataka with 27.8 lakh people participating in various activities.
The campaign, which is taken up every year from September 15 to October 2, involves volunteers chosen by the government doing shramdaan activities through community participation. They undertake cleaning roads, tanks, segregate waste at source, and write slogans and pledge to stop littering.
The Karnataka government has also involved school and college students across 6,000 gram panchayats.
Ateeq said that across the state, 18.94 crore people (head counts) from 28,000 villages participated, which is highest for any state. Bihar comes second with 17.26 crore people taking part. Since the rural population of the state is around 4.5 crore, each person is involved in four to five activities.