Centre to award a new city every year for cleanliness: Urban minister
The consistent top-performing cities such as Indore, which achieved the top ranking for seven years straight, will compete in a smaller elite category of ‘golden city club
Neither Indore nor Surat will be ranked first in next year’s Swachh Survekshan Awards to make way for a new city to be adjudged the cleanest city in India. The consistent top-performing cities such as Indore, which achieved the top ranking for seven years straight, will compete in a smaller elite category of ‘golden city club’, said Union housing and urban affairs minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Friday.
“In the golden city club, if one city is no longer golden, that city will again compete with other cities. This way there will be a new city achieving first rank every time.” He was speaking at the curtain raiser event of a two-week campaign titled Swabhav Swachhata Sanskar Swachhata (4S) 2024, organised to celebrate 10 years of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. The campaign is set to roll out from September 17, the birthday of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and will culminate on October 2, the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.
As part of the campaign, the Union government in partnership with states will carry out transformation of 200,000 black spots in both urban and rural areas. These black spots or Cleanliness Target Units (CTUs) will be mapped and monitored through a portal.
Other than the central and state governments, central public sector units, private industries and NGOs will also be encouraged to adopt CTUs.
Other than this, officials said that the campaign will be built around two other core pillars–namely Swachhata Ki Bhaagidari and SafaiMitra Suraksha Shivir.
Through the former, public participation, awareness, and advocacy will be carried out while the other pillars will cater to the safety and welfare and health of sanitation workers.
The minister also said there are approximately 2,300 dumpsites in urban areas with 22 crore metric tonnes of waste, out of which 427 crore dumpsites with 9 crore metric tonnes of waste have been completely remediated, and 4,500 acres of land has been reclaimed. He said the mission aims at making the shift from door-to-door collection to 100% processing.