Haryana Government has decided to award Swachhata Shehri Puraskar every month as incentive to the cleanest ward in each Municipal Corporation, Municipal Council and Municipal committee in the State.
The award money would be `2 lakh for the Municipal Corporation ward, `1 lakh for Municipal Council ward and `50,000 for Municipal Committee ward. All best wards of UlBs for the month of July would be honoured on the occasion of Independence Day, said a spokesman of the Development and Panchayats Department.
The main objective of the scheme is to motivate and create a sense of competition among the UlBs to promote accelerated sanitation and eliminate the practice of open defecation in the urban areas of the State. All best wards of UlBs would be recommended in the month of July every year and honoured on I-Day, he said.
He said the award scheme would also recognise the achievements of Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) which had made sincere efforts to ensure cleanliness. The best performing RWA would be selected by the District level Sanitation Committee and award money of `50,000 would be awarded to RWA in a month in each district.
Detailing the salient features of the scheme, he said cities must be made defecation-free. These must eliminate the practice of manual scavenging and provide adequate personnel protection equipment for the safety of sanitation workers, he added.
The other features included safe and efficient management of municipal waste-water and storm water drainage, 100 per cent collection of solid waste and its safe disposal, improved public health outcomes and environmental standards, said the spokesman.