SRINAGAR: Chief Secretary, Dr Arun Kumar Mehta, Friday took a review of the districts lagging behind in the declaration of the villages as ‘Model Category’ under the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) Grameen.
The Government is aspiring to declare the whole UT as the ODF+ by 15th of August as per the defined parameters of the scheme and has till date been successful in registering a progress of over 96% with remaining villages to be covered before Independence Day.
On the occasion, Dr Mehta enjoined upon the officers to make it a practice to conduct a ‘Quality Check (QC)’ before declaring the villages as Model category ODF+ under SBM (G).
He called upon them to take recommendations of the concerned ‘Prabhari Officers’ and local Sarpanchs to declare any village as ODF+ category. He asked them that all the requisite facilities mandatory for this exercise like collection of waste, treatment of liquid waste, removing legacy waste, availability of segregation sheds besides the visual cleanliness of surroundings should be cross-checked before making this declaration.
The Chief Secretary also observed that the cleanliness is not a single day affair but demands a permanent change in the attitude of people. He made out that people should demand cleanliness and the efforts should not drop going forward even in the winter months here.
Dr Mehta appreciated the role of the Rural Sanitation Department for making it happen in a short timeframe. He said that there were times when it looked difficult to achieve this uphill task in this timeframe but the collective efforts have made it happen which is quite admirable.
He told them to sensitize people by taking out ‘Swachhta Rallies’ in these concerned Panchayats this Independence Day and involve the youth and women also in these rallies.
The meeting was attended by Commissioner Secretary, RDD; Deputy Commissioners of Baramulla/Kupwara/Kishtwar/Reasi besides the Director, Rural Sanitation and other concerned officers of the Departmentm.
