Union Housing and Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday found out that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s diktat for keeping all building complexes and offices clean was yet to be followed by his own Ministry at the Nirman Bhavan.
Naidu, who reached the Ministry at 9 am on a surprise inspection and walked into rooms of several officers, found that many babus were yet to reach office. Not just that, he also noticed the poor maintenance of the corridors of the premises, canteens and toilets.
A senior official from the UD Ministry said the Minister expressed “displeasure” over the late arrival of officials and poor maintenance of the corridors of the premises, canteens and toilets.
“He noticed that rooms of several officers and reporting staff were empty as they were still to reach office. He also took note of electrical and other wires dangling along corridors and unused and waste materials dumped in the open.
“He found the floors being cleaned as he went around for about half an hour. The Minister was not happy with the upkeep of canteens,” it said. An “unhappy” Naidu later called Urban Development Secretary Sudhir Krishna and other senior officials and conveyed his “displeasure” over late arrival of officials and poor maintenance of the working place.
Naidu emphasised his officials that a presentable and efficient working environment is the need of the hour and directed them to take necessary action at the earliest to remove the deficiencies that had come to his notice.
In the past few days, the Ministries are undertaking cleanliness drive following directions by Cabinet Secretary Ajit Seth, who at the behest of the new Prime Minister, has written to secretaries of various Central Government departments pressing the need for clean working spaces.
The drive, which started from Sunday, saw officials at the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) at North Block cleaning up their offices, weeding out unwanted files/documents, furniture, appliances and instrumentation etc so that more space can be created for other useful purposes.
At Shastri Bhavan, too, which houses important Ministries such as Human Resource Development, officials ensured cleaning up dust and cobwebs while old files and broken furniture have been ordered to be
disposed of.
At the Health Ministry also, officials said that a series of inspections from the ground floor to seventh floor of Nirman Bhavan has been carried out and it has been decided to ensure that corridors and rooms are cleaned up by 9:00 am everyday to enable officers and staff to start working as soon as they arrive, without waiting for the rooms to be cleaned
thereafter.