With a broom in hands, Chief Minister Manohar lal Khattar along with his Cabinet colleagues will once again hit the streets of Haryana to pose in front of cameras and clean the public spaces.
As called upon by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a campaign ‘Swachhta Hi Sewa’ is underway from September 15 and will continue till October 2 in the State, and at the same time, the BJP-led Haryana Government has geared up for another fortnight programme “Gram Samridhi evam Swachhata Pakhwada’ to be held from October 1 to 15.
The Manohar lal Khattar Government in Haryana has invariably made all out efforts to remain in the forefront in implementation of Central schemes or initiatives at the State level, however, the State’s performance under cleanliness mission has failed to impress so far.
The tall claims made by the Haryana Government regarding achieving cleanliness standards, has fallen flat in various cleanliness surveys. Various Central cleanliness surveys have suggested that the campaign, which began with a good intention, has become just a photo-op for VIPs, who are seen wielding the broom during the special cleanliness drives in Haryana.
Since the launch of PM’s flagship ‘Swachchh Bharat Abhiyan’, Haryana Government has conducted a series of cleanliness campaigns in the past three years where Chief Minister, Union Cabinet Ministers, Haryana Ministers and other VIPs were seen holding brooms and cleaning public spaces, in an attempt to encourage others to keep their surroundings neat and clean.
One such picture of Chief Minister Manohar lal holding a broom alongside rape convict self-styled godman Gurmeet Ram Rahim taken earlier this year during a cleanliness drive, was widely circulated recently, for the reasons well-known.
Having failed to achieve much on the cleanliness parameters, the BJP led Haryana Government has once again launched a month long cleanliness campaign including ‘Swachhta Hi Sewa’ programme and ‘Gram Samridhi evam Swachhata Pakhwada’.
“launched on September 15, the ‘Swachhta Hi Sewa’ would include a series of activities like awareness campaigns, administering the pledge of cleanliness, shramdaan, large-scale cleaning of hospitals, parks, statues, bus stops, ponds among other activities till October 2,” said RK Mehta, state project coordinator, Swachh Bharat Mission-Gramin (SBMG), Haryana while talking to The Pioneer.
On the concluding day on October 2, Swachh Bharat Divas will be observed and district-level function would be organised to give away awards for best selected activities.
Mehta said that “Gram Samridhi evam Swachhata Pakhwada’ would be observed in all districts from October 1 to 15 and it is aimed at encouraging people to create an environment for clean villages and development of livelihood plans for households. One of the main components of this fortnight programme is cleanliness campaign during which cleanliness drives, street plays, film screening among other activities will be organised, he added.
In both the fortnight programmes, Cabinet Ministers, local MPs, MlAs and other dignitaries would participate to spread awareness about
cleanliness.
Nevertheless, be it cities or railways stations of Haryana, the central surveys had showed poor performance of the state on cleanliness parameters.
Notably, the Chief Minister’s own city, Karnal had secured 65th rank in the Swachh Survekshan 2017 (Swachh Bharat survey 2017) that was conducted in 434 cities and towns of the country. Haryana’s Millennium city Gurugram and industrial hub Faridabad had also failed to impress in terms of cleanliness and were ranked 112th and 88th respectively in the list.
Interestingly, both Faridabad and Karnal have been included in the Centre’s smart city mission.
Besides, the cleanliness survey released by the Railway Ministry had ranked Ambala Cantt railway station at 73rd place in a total of 75 A-1 category railways stations, which are busiest and generates annual passenger revenue of above Rs 50 crore. In the nationwide cleanliness survey of total 407 railway stations, Ambala Cantonment railway station, could achieve the overall poor ranking of 350.
Apart from this, none of the government higher educational institution was in the top ranking in the recently released ‘SWACHHTA’ ranking 2017 of higher educational institutions in the country.
While the Haryana Government had in June this year claimed that all rural areas including 6205 gram panchayats in the state has become open defecation free (ODF), reports, however, suggested that many households in the villages are still without toilets.
The State Government has now set a target to declare all the urban areas ODF by September 25.
In line with Centre’s project ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’, Haryana Government had also launched ‘Swachh Haryana, Swachh Bharat’ campaign in the year 2014 to achieve total sanitation by October 2, 2019.