Make cleanliness drive mass movement: Minister

Monday, 18/05/2015

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Chandigarh : Punjab Local Government Minister Anil Joshi has directed that cleanliness drive initiated in the state should become a mass movement. While congratulating the BJP-led NDA government on the completion of one year service to the nation, he expressed the satisfaction that the BJP was working for an all inclusive growth of society with its distinct social engineering pro-people agenda.

In a statement here, on Sunday, Joshi stated that the ‘Swachh Bharat Mission’ is a flagship mission of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and all officials of the Local Government Department should put in their best efforts to make it a success. He also directed the officials to ensure uploading of data on the ‘Swachh Bharat Mission’ website which will be reviewed regularly.

The Minister applauded the efforts and assurances of big houses for providing set of public and mobile toilets for the public utility to Municipal Corporation in Mohali. The officers have been asked to explore the possibility of private partnership under their CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) initiatives. He appealed to big business houses to come forward for such works which would help the society in a bigger way.

Stating that no movement could become a success without public support and cooperation, the Minister said that community kitchens (langar) should take care of the sanitation aspects and advised the officials of the departments to provide dumpers during these celebrations by charging a nominal fee from the organisers. “User charges should be applied on the basis of ‘Polluter Pays Principle’ from domestic as well as commercial establishments for door-to-door garbage collection,” he asserted, while instructing that the department should start a public awareness drive by involving all stakeholders.

The Minister has asked the Secretary of the department of find out ways to curb the plastic nuisance to be worked out preferably through a state level law.

In regard to energy saving in streetlighting, Joshi informed that a team of officers from Punjab Municipal Infrastructure Development Corporation (PMIDC) visited ‘Municipalika 2014’ at Vadodra (Gujarat) and obtained first hand information on design-based installation of streetlights; installation of micro processor-based intelligent lighting streetlight controller and Gujarat government’s policy on installation of streetlights.

Pertinently, the Vadodra Municipal Corporation had won 4 national awards for achieving energy efficiency with its innovative measures for achieving optimum energy efficiency, highlighting the concept of procuring lighting and concept on use of energy efficient lamps and time management for energy saving.

The Minister informed that a team of streetlight engineers from Vadodra Municipal Corporation would be visiting Punjab soon to organise a state-level workshop for Commissioners, Engineers and Executive Officers to understand the concept of smart streetlighting and innovative methods undertaken in Vadodra.