Chandigarh, September 25 - Haryana Chief Minister Mr. Naib Singh Saini said that with the aim of awakening the spirit of competition towards cleanliness in the municipal corporations, Swachhata Ranking will be started. The corporations that perform best will be encouraged and also the Swachhata Mitras engaged in this campaign will be honored.
The Chief Minister was addressing as the Chief Guest at the program organized at Shaheed Smarak Sector-2 in Panchkula today to inaugurate the special Shramdaan campaign Ek Din, Ek Ghanta, Ek Sathe. Earlier, Chief Minister Mr. Naib Singh Saini paid tribute to the martyred Mayor Sandeep Sankhla by laying a wreath at his statue and took the blessings of Smt. Manju Kanwar, mother of two other martyrs.
The Chief Minister performed Shramdaan under the special Shramdaan campaign and appealed to all social service institutions, youth, mothers, sisters, and common citizens to extend their full support in this cleanliness campaign. He said that one hour of Shramdaan for cleanliness is being done today in the entire country. Do not consider this as just a one-day campaign, but maintain cleanliness daily, only then will our surroundings, villages, cities and the state become clean.
The Chief Minister said that everyone will have to make joint efforts for Panchkula to also come first in the cleanliness ranking. He said that about one and a half lakh tonnes of garbage lying in the dumping ground of Sector-23 will be removed and disposed of properly so that the city becomes cleaner and more beautiful. He appealed to the people to plant as many plants as possible and also protect them. The government has planted 18 crore plants in the state since 2014. This year too, a target of planting 2 crore 10 lakh plants has been set. He said that while planting trees reduces pollution, greenery also increases cleanliness and beauty.
Mr. Naib Singh Saini said that Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi had launched the Swachh Bharat Mission in the year 2014. The people of Haryana have also paid full attention to this campaign launched by the Prime Minister. As a result, today Haryana is open defecation free.
He said that Haryana has established many milestones in the direction of cleanliness. In the Swachhta Survekshan-2024-25 organized under the Swachh Bharat Mission, two cities of Haryana state have been honored at the national level. On 17th July, in a grand ceremony organized at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi, while President Smt. Draupadi Murmu presented the Swachh Shahar Award to Karnal, Sonepat was given the Ministerial Star Award for cleanliness.
The Chief Minister said that Haryana has been open defecation free since 2018. 14 urban corporations of the state have been certified as GDF ++. 99 urban corporations have been certified as ODF + and 34 urban corporations as ODF. 7 lakh 30 thousand public toilets have also been constructed in the villages of the state. About 7 thousand public toilets have been constructed in 66,662 houses and 2,334 communities in the cities of the state.
Speaking on the occasion, Commissioner and Secretary of the Urban Local Bodies Department Mr. Vikas Gupta said that under the leadership of Chief Minister Mr. Naib Singh Saini, the government has paid special attention to the cleanliness of the cities. In the next 6 months, all the cities of the state will be made clean cities. For this, the work of garbage collection and disposal is being done by the department in a mission mode.
Mayor Kulbhushan Goyal, former Speaker of the Legislative Assembly Gianchand Gupta, Vice Chairman of Shivalik Development Board Om Prakash Devinagar, Director General of Urban Local Corporation Department Pankaj, Deputy Commissioner Satpal Sharma, Commissioner of Municipal Corporation Panchkula RK Singh and other dignitaries were present on this occasion.