BENGALURU: Karnataka has beaten other states to emerge on top in ‘Swachhata Hi Seva’ campaign that aims to generate greater public participation towards Swachh Bharat Mission and reinforce the concept of sanitation as “everyone’s business”. According to the data from the Union Government, as many as 4,33,79,791 people took part in the campaign from Karnataka.
The Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Ministry of Jal Shakti, started the fortnightly campaign from September 15 to October 2, to strive towards complete sanitation. The focus of this year’s Swachhata Hi Seva is towards managing legacy waste at garbage vulnerable sites in villages Interestingly, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai’s home district Haveri tops the chart in Karnataka with 27.8 lakh people taking part in the activities, followed by Bengaluru Rural (23.43 lakh), “A nation-wide campaign has been launched to promote sanitation, cleanliness and hygiene.
As part of this campaign, Karnataka mobilised people and also involved all gram panchayats, schools and villages. We dredged water bodies, focused on cleaning heritage monuments and conducted other sanitation works. We also conducted essay competitions to raise awareness on cleanliness. I am happy to report that Karnataka is number one in Swachhata Hi Seva campaign,” said LK Ateeq, Additional Chief Secretary, RDPR, GOK On Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike’s response to the campaign, Palike Special Commissioner (solid waste management) Harish Kumar said among all the Tier I and II cities, Bengaluru stood first with over 5 lakh feedbacks from citizens.