Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday exhorted the officials in Ministry of Defence to contribute individually towards a few hours of shramdaan every week to maintain cleanliness at the workplace, emphasizing that a cleaner and decluttered workplace leads to enhanced productivity.

He administered the swachhata pledge to officials in South Block and inspected the office premises, including the recently renovated corridor at Gate No. 09 and beautified courtyard.

The defence minister also felicitated the Swachhata Veers whose tireless efforts have been crucial in maintaining hygiene and cleanliness of the South Block premises.

The Campaign was conducted with a three-pronged approach of general upkeep and cleanliness drive with beautification of building, corridors and courtyards; weeding out of old records, scrapping and disposal of old equipment and furniture; and Clearance and redress of VIP references and grievances.

The Ministry of Defence and its subordinate offices together conducted Swachhata Abhiyan at 3,832 locations/sites across the country.

The overarching thrust of the Campaign has been on gainful utilization of available resources and generation of revenue from disposal of scrap.

Keeping with this spirit, obsolete office equipment/IT equipment in the organizations were condemned and revenue was generated by way of their disposal during the Campaign.

More than 2.81 Lakh square feet of space has been freed pan India for better utilization.  A total of 36,444 physical files has been reviewed. 169 public grievances on CPGRAMS and 45 MP/VIP references have been addressed during the Campaign.