Union Minister for Urban and Rural Development Narendra Singh Tomar here on Monday said that Indore has become a role model of cleanliness in the country and the city has spurred competitiveness among other cities of Madhdya Pradesh to become clean.
Inaugurating 180 MlD additional Narmada water supply scheme in the city under the Amrit Yojna, he said that Indore by becoming number one clean city of the country has glorified image of Madhya Pradesh. Indore is not only the business capital of Madhya Pradesh, it is also the leader of all cities in Madhya Pradesh. He hoped that given the kind of cleanliness being carried out in the city, in all likelihood, the city will retain its number one tag of the cleanest city of the country in 2018 as well.
He said that Indore has been given maximum amount under the Amrit Yojna and the works being carried out under this scheme are quite visible. He said the cleanliness campaign started by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi has now become a public mission and every village, cities, towns as well as states are competing with each other to become clean. He said the success of the cleanliness mission could be gauged from the fact that out of six lakh villages in the country, 2.30 lakh villages have been declared open defecation free (ODF). He hoped that by 2019, the whole country would become ODF.
Talking about beginning of the Metro train projects in Indore and Bhopal, Tomar said that the State Chief Minister during his recent visit to Delhi had held discussions on Indore, Bhopal Metro rail projects. He said in order to bring about uniformity in all the cities of the country for running metro train projects, the union government has framed a Metro policy in consultation with the experts of the field and accordingly, the union government has given directives to all the state governments to send detailed project reports of metro projects in their respective cities.
On the issue of availability of potable drinking water to every home in the country, the minister said the union government is committed to provide clean potable drinking water to every home and this objective in all likelihood would be achieved by 2030.
Speaking on the occasion, Indore Mayor Malini Gaud said that if Indore has become the cleanest city of the country, all credit goes to its citizens, the lok Sabha Speaker, all MlAs, corporators and public representatives. The Mayor said the Indore municipal corporation is working extensively to collect dry and liquid garbage separately and make compost out of it.