Karnal, October 3: Adding another feather to its cap, Karnal district has achieved seventh position across the country and third in north zone in Swachh Survekshan Grameen-2018 by securing 96.8 marks out of 100 in all parameters set for the survey conducted between August 1 and 31 by the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation.
Minister for Drinking Water and Sanitation Uma Bharati on Tuesday honoured Karnal Additional Deputy Commissioner Nishant Kumar Yadav, Indri BDPO Angrej Singh and Haibatpur sarpanch Rajpal for their contribution towards this goal during a programme in New Delhi.
Karnal (urban) had already secured first place in Haryana and 41st rank in India out of more than 4,000 cities in Swachh Survekshan-2018. Karnal district was the leader in Swachhta Pakhwada in August 2017.
Yadav appreciated the efforts of all gram panchayats and officials associated with the project. He said Labour and Employment Minister Nayab Singh Saini on July 28 launched the Swachh Survekshan Grameen-2018 for rural areas of Karnal and administered oath of cleanliness.
“With open defecation-free status in January 2017, we achieved 70 per cent marks. Achieving 30 per cent marks was a challenge. We identified focus areas and made people aware by putting up banners at public places in villages. A sanitation chariot was launched by Deputy Commissioner Aditya Dahiya,” said Yadav.
He said the focus was on cleaning of waste water. Villagers were sensitised on adopting techniques to make compost from kitchen waste and use kitchen waste as manure in kitchen gardens, he maintained.
He said a campaign was started to use green dustbins for wet waste and blue ones for dry waste. He said special cleanliness drives were organised at public places and school students organised cleanliness rallies.
He said nukkad nataks, mohalla sabhas and vigilance committees were supported to maintain continuity of open defecation free status. He said the people were educated to give feedback on a mobile app launched by the government.
