No Government higher educational institute has found a place in the list of top 50 “swachchh” institutions.
This was admitted by Union Minister for Human Resource Development Prakash Javadekar during the presentation of Swachchhta Ranking 2017 awards to 25 higher educational institutes in the country on Thursday.
Javadekar said since no Government institution could secure a spot in the top 50, his Ministry made a separate category for them. Interestingly, 12 colleges of Tamil Nadu made it to the list of top “swachchh” institutions while no college from Delhi could make the cut.
Around 3,500 institutes participated in the rankings, of which 174 were shortlisted and, the best 25 shortlisted higher education institutes were selected for the top rankings in four categories: university, college, technical institution, and Government institution.
The ranking has been done on the basis of multiple categories, including cleanliness standards, cleaning systems, waste disposal methods, campus greenery and campus accessibility.
The OP Jindal Global University in Sonipat topped the university category and Kongu Arts and Science College in Erode, TN, in the college category. Amritha Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Coimbatore, and GB Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar (Uttarakhand) were declared the best in the technical and Government institutions categories respectively.
Presenting the awards, Javadekar said, “Indians are ahead in personal hygiene but when it comes to keeping our roads, streets and surroundings clean, we are last.
“It was surprising that no Government university was listed in the first 50. We had to make a special category for Government universities under which GB Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Uttarakhand was at the first position, followed by Madurai Kamraj University, Tamil Nadu.”
TN bagged the maximum number of awards in each category. The southern State received five awards under the college and technical institution categories.
Other TN colleges that made it to the list are Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda College, Chennai, Vivekananda College of Arts and Science, Tiruchengode, SNR Sons College, Coimbatore, KG College of Arts and Science, Coimbatore, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Coimbatore. Sri Ramachandra Medical College and Research Institute, Chennai, Vivekananda College of Engineering for Women, Tiruchengode, RMD Engineering College and RMK Engineering College, Chennai, Madurai Kamraj University, Madurai and Alagappa University, Karaikudi.
Javadekar also said cleanliness promotes tourism, brings hygiene and reduces health expenditure of a country. The Minister also said that a total of 4.5 lakh toilets were constructed in schools in the last one year across the country and this will reduce the drop-out percentage.”Students are ambassadors of cleanliness. Clean Campus should become a Smart Campus and must know how to dispose waste while using smart technology,” said the HRD Minister.
Asked about Delhi colleges failing to find a spot in the list, a senior HRD Ministry official said, “The colleges were shortlisted from a number of applications received. So, it is possible not many colleges in Delhi applied for it.”
However, no data was immediately available about the number of applications received from Delhi.
Minister of State for Human Resource Development (Higher Education) Dr Satyapal Singh also attended the programme. Earlier in September, the Ministry of Human Resources Development had announced “Swachh Vidyalaya Puraskar” and over 2,60,000 schools from across the country had voluntarily participated in the competition.
Other than educational institutes, the Ministry of Human Resource Development has also released a list of top five districts for outstanding co-ordination with the higher education institutes in the district under the Clean India Movement. These five districts are Medak in Telangana; Jhabua in Madhya Pradesh; Ajmer in Rajasthan; Warangal (Urban) in Telangana; Indore in Madhya Pradesh.