Golden Temple gets the ‘Swachh bharat Award’ for upholding International Standard of Cleanliness

The local Municipal Corporation has received the Rashtriya Swachh Bharat Puraskar under the Swachh Iconic Places (SIPs), an initiative of the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation. The holy shrine, Golden Temple, was earlier picked by the ministry for the list of iconic places under the Swacch Bharat Mission.

Municipal Corporation health officer Dr Raju Chauhan said, “The award was received by senior officials of the corporation at an event in New Delhi.” Chauhan said a total of 100 iconic places in the country were earlier on the list.

The MC stated the award was bestowed on the civic body for better cleanliness and hygiene around Golden Temple. Chauhan said Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited had also announced that it will spend Rs 10 crore to ensure cleanliness surrounding Golden Temple as part of its corporate social responsibility.

The corporation also organised Swachh Bharat Campaigns on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti today at Company Bagh and Guru Nanak Dev Bhawan.

Led by Assistant Commissioner Alka Kalia, officials of the administration took an oath to work for improving the cleanliness and hygiene in the city and paid floral tributes to Mahatma Gandhi.

Kalia said as per the clean cities list, the condition of cleanliness in the city has improved and its rank has improved from 386 to 211 recently. She said the newly introduced scheme of garbage collection from homes has helped in checking the problem of garbage heaps on roads.

Members of the Voice of Amritsar (VOA), a campaign which had initially started online, but later its members started participating in various events also, attended the event at Company Bagh.

A group of volunteers under the leadership of former Cabinet minister Anil Joshi also conducted cleanliness drives on streets near the Trillum mall here.

-Tribune