‘Swachhata’ promotes Tourism says Javadekar; TN bags maximum awards

New Delhi, Sep 14: Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar today said Swachhata (cleanliness) promotes tourism, brings hygiene and reduces health expenditure of a country. Mr Javadekar, presenting awards to higher educational institutions for ‘Swachhata Ranking 2017’, said, “Indians are ahead in personal hygiene but when it comes to clean our roads, streets, surroundings we are at the last.” The awards were given to higher educational institutions on the basis of Swachhata parameters which include student-toilet ratio, water purity and pipeline systems, facility and modernity of kitchen, adequacy of garbage collection and its disposal system, greenery coverage in campus and overall cleanliness and ambience. A total of 3500 institutions participated of which 174 were shortlisted. Best 25 institutions were selected in four categories -- Universities, Colleges, Technical institutions, Government institutions. Collectors under Unnat Bharat Abhiyan were also awarded. OP Jindal Global University from Sonipat, Haryana bagged the first position under University category followed by Manipal University of Jaipur. Tamil Nadu bagged maximum number of awards in each category. Under College category the southern state received five awards. Under Technical institutions category, it bagged the same number of awards. "It was surprising that no Government university was listed in the first 50. We had to make a special category for Government universities under which GB Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Uttarakhand was at the first position followed by Madurai Kamraj University, Tamil Nadu," said the Minister. Mr Javadekar, addressing the gathering, said a total of 4.5-lakh toilets were constructed in schools in the last one year across the country and this will reduce the drop-out percentage. “Students are ambassadors of cleanliness. Clean Campus should become Smart Campus and must know how to dispose waste while using smart technology,” said the HRD Minister. Mr Javadekar congratulated the winners and said “Swachhata is a service.” UNI