Departments in Uttar Pradesh secretariat vie for cleanliness honours

Chief minister Yogi Adityanath had expressed serious concern over poor cleanliness in the state secretariat at a high-level meeting that he presided over here on April 24.

The state government has put its 93 departments and their 463 sections in competition with one another in maintaining cleanliness under the ‘clean secretariat campaign’ launched recently in the Uttar Pradesh secretariat.

Yojana Bhavan in Lucknow is among the 11 secretariat buildings that will be evaluated for cleanliness. (REPRESENTATIVE IMAGE)

The secretariat administration department (SAD) has been sending consistent reminders to certain departments to make the campaign a success after it evoked poor or no response initially from some of them.

Those aware of developments said about a dozen of state government’s 93 departments have not been able to set up committees expected to oversee the implementation of the campaign at the level of secretariat buildings, departments and sections that form the backbone of the secretariat functioning.

The state government has now worked out a comprehensive strategy to involve all the departments in running the campaign.

“A comprehensive strategy to involve all departments to maintain cleanliness in the state secretariat has been worked out. The Uttar Pradesh secretariat’s 11 buildings and 463 sections of the 93 departments are now competing to get a good rating for cleanliness. A 1000-mark evaluation criteria has been worked out and the committees within and outside the departments have been tasked with the evaluation against set parameters,” said a senior officer.

“While 400 out of 1000 marks will be awarded by the departmental committees, the departments will have to satisfy the SAD committee to get the remaining 600 marks. Those getting the first, second and third places will be given prizes at a programme on August 15,” the officer added.

Chief minister Yogi Adityanath had expressed serious concern over poor cleanliness in the state secretariat at a high-level meeting that he presided over here on April 24.

Another officer said as efforts to maintain cleanliness have failed to show results over the years, chief secretary Durga Shankar Mishra sat with senior officials to give a final shape to the strategy. A large number of discarded items were found in most of the departments, posing a challenge to the cleanliness campaign.

Various items discarded due to them being out of use included 469 tables, 1408 chairs, 153 almirahs, 118 sofas, 200 photostat machines, 43 typewriters, 321 monitors and 321 printers etc.

“We will soon auction these discarded items,” the officer said.

Chief secretary Durga Shankar Mishra, in his order dated May 4, 2022, said the campaign was being launched to make the work place clean and improve efficiency of employees. The chief secretary’s order divides the secretariat area into outer and internal for the purpose of evaluating the cleanliness.

Eleven secretariat buildings will be evaluated on the basis of cleanliness of toilets, galleries, lobbies, stairs, parking and rooftops.

These buildings include Lok Bhavan, Shastri Bhavan, Bapu Bhavan, Mukhya (Vidhan) Bhavan, Naveen Bhavan, Adhikari Bhavan, Bahukhandi Bhavan, Sachiv Bhavan, Yojana Bhavan, Darbari Lal Sharma Bhavan and Vikas Bhavan.

Cleanliness in 463 sections of 93 departments will be evaluated on the basis of cleanliness of furniture and office equipment.