After initiating cleanliness drive in the Central Government offices, the Modi Government has now asked the States to rate their buildings on the basis of cleanliness and sanitation infrastructure such as number of urinals, wash-hand basins, toilets and dustbins and their functional status. In this regard, the Centre has prepared a self-assessment form for ‘Swachchh Bharat Mission’ (SBM) ratings of Government offices and asked the State Governments to share with it its ratings by the end of the next month.
Prepared by the Union Urban Development Ministry, the self-assessment forms have in all ten questions, specifying parameters on which the cleanliness of a building has to be measured, including number of toilet and hand wash-basins, their condition and extent of functional level. The UD Ministry has been entrusted to oversee the Swachchh Bharat Mission in the urban part of the country. The Mission aims to provide hygiene and cleanliness as well make the country open defecation free by 2019.
The officials have been asked to allocate marks as per the status of the infrastructure. For instance, the set A deals with number of urinals, whether the toilet seats or wash hand basins are in the working condition or not, as per the circular issued by Praveen Prakash, Joint Secretary in the UD Ministry. The questionnaires in the B set seek query on “Whether the corridors are free from paan/gutka or betel nuts satins” or is there any unwanted/discarded material lying on the roof or balconies,” or is there any unwanted/discarded material lying outside but within the building premises.” The states have tos core out of maximum marks of 20.
The next question is on adequacy of dust bins in the building and premises. “To ensure that the larger aim of the SBM is met, it is necessary to devise instruments which will lead towards this goal. Therefore to create an impact, it is felt that SBM ratings of Government offices may be undertaken to assess the existing infrastructure and suggesting improvements thereafter.
The SBM rating comes in the wake of repeated representations from the public requesting that all Government offices such as banks, post offices, petrol pumps, bus stops, railway stations hospitals, schools among others should have clean toilets for the use of the public. The UD Ministry has issued instructions to all the municipal commissioners, civic bodies etc to ensure that toilets are kept in a working condition and are open for public use at the earliest.