“Rashtriya Swachhata Kendra” to be set up by “Swachh Bharat Mission” at Gandhi Smriti & Darshan Samiti, Rajghat

“Rashtriya Swachhata Kendra” to be set up by “Swachh Bharat Mission” at Gandhi Smriti & Darshan Samiti, Rajghat

M/O Culture Develops “E-Guide (Audio-Visual)” App to Create Awareness for Tourists

M/O Tourism Strives to Realise Mahatma Gandhi’s Dream of Clean India by his Sesquicentennial (150th Year) Birth Anniversary Celebrations in 2019

“Rashtriya Swachhata Kendra” will be set up by “Swachh Bharat Mission” Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation at Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti (GSDS), Rajghat by “Swachh Bharat Mission” Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation under the vision of Prime Minister during the centenary year of  Champaran Satyagraha and the Ministry of Culture is considering to provide space for the purpose. This was announced by Dr. Mahesh Sharma, Minister of State (I/C) for Culture and Tourism while addressing media persons on the culmination of “Swachhata Pakhwada” of Ministry of Culture here today. Shri Narendra Singh Tomar, Minister for Rural Development, Pachayati Raj and Drinking Water & Sanitation was also present.

Dr. Sharma informed the media persons that Ministry of Culture dedicated a total of 275 effort hours for cleanliness and awareness during Swachhata Pakhwada. A total of 82 activities/events were organised by the Ministry and its organizations during the Swachhata Pakhwada. He said that to create awareness on “Swachhata”, Ministry of Culture has developed “e-guide (Audio-Visual) App  e3.eguide.net.in” to create awareness for the tourists visiting National Museum.

Addressing on the occasion, Shri Narendra Singh Tomar said that that Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) is not only the top priority of the Government but it has become a national mission for the people of India and positive results are pouring in from every nook and corner of the country. He said that since the launch of SBM on 2^ndOctober, 2014, till date more than 4 crore individual household latrines have been built and one lakh, 94,000 villages and 135 districts have become Open Defecation Free, ODF. He added that apart from Sikkim, Kerala and Himachal Pradesh which are ODF Sates, 6 to 7 more States will soon declare them ODF as the work is going on a rapid scale.

Shri Tomar said that the total budget for Swachh Bharat Mission is now Rs 19,300 crore with a Central share of Rs 14,000 crore and Rs 5,300 crore is the budgetary provision declared by all government departments as they had been asked to make a special mention of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in their budget proposals, besides finalising their ‘Swachhta Action Plan’.

On completion of 3^rd year of Swachhata Abhiyan, Ministry of Culture and Tourism organised “Swachhata Pakhwada” from 16^th – 30^th April, 2017.  During the period, they initiated various Swachhata activities namely; (i) creating permanent mechanism of cleanliness for all organisations under Ministry of Culture and Tourism ; (ii) to spread awareness through various cultural activities by involving all their organisations: and (iii) spread of swachhata awareness through Music, Dance and Drama by its Academies and maintaining cleanliness at all ASI Protected Monuments etc.

Major initiatives undertaken by Ministry of Culture during Swachhata Pakhwada are :-

• Ministry is considering to provide space at Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti (GSDS), Rajghat to host “Rashtriya Swachhata Kendra” to be set up by “Swachh Bharat Mission” Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation under vision of  Prime Minister during the centenary year of Champaran Satyagraha.

• National Archives of India organized “Swachhagraha- Bapu ko Karyanjali” a mission, and exhibition to commemorate centenary year of Champaran Satyagraha.

• To create awareness on “Swachhata”, Ministry of Culture has developed “e-guide (Audio-Visual)” App to create awareness for the tourists visiting National Museum.

• 2 days festival – “Vimal Yatra” was organized by Sangeet Natak Akademi through cultural and devotional performances.

• Special exhibition titled “SUNO- Broom Sticks” was organized by the Indian Museum to highlight importance of broom sticks.

• 7 Zonal Cultural Centres of Ministry organized various competitions such as essay writing, poster making, painting, rangoli making amongst students for Swachhta awareness.

• The Archaeological Survey of India observed World Heritage Day on 18^th April, 2017 through awareness campaign “Swachh Bharat – Swachh Smarak” in all its monuments and site museums.

• Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sanghralaya organized series of activities such as painting competition, lectures and seminars.

• The National Gallery of Modern Art participated in heritage walk and cleanliness drive on World Art Day and World Heritage Day.  They also organized poster making competition for school students.

• Allahabad Museum organized series of activities namely seminar on waste management, debate completion on hygiene and cleanliness for school children etc.

Major initiatives undertaken by Ministry of Tourism during Swachhata Pakhwada are :

• The Ministry of Tourism, with the aim and objectives of promoting these places of attraction, has adopted the motto “Incredible India” and considers the visitors as guests and regards them as “Atithi devo Bhava” and works towards the maintaince of cleanliness in the tourist destinations through various schemes/programmes, such as Campaign Clean India, undertaking awareness campaigns, Swachhta Runs, conferring National Awards etc. One such programme is the observance of a campaign on cleanliness and undertaking a fortnightly intensive cleanliness drive called “Swachhta Pakhwada”.

• During the current financial year, the Ministry has undertaken a Swachhta Pakhwada from 16^th-30^thApril, 2017, to synchronize with the World Heritage Day celebrations by the Ministry of Culture, as per the consolidated guidelines issued by the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation. During this Pakhwada period, an intensive cleaning operation was undertaken In-house in Transport Bhawan and C-1, Hutments by all the staff members, which yielded good results.

• Ministry of Tourism has joined the celebrations of World Heritage Day by the ASI at the historic Humayun’s Tomb, a world heritage monument in Delhi. An intensive cleanliness drive undertaken jointly by the officials of MoT and ASI has yielded good results and made the monument, its approach, its garden area, its drinking water units and toilet area neat and clean and kept the monument in a presentable condition. Similar cleaning operation was undertaken at the historic Firoz Shah Kotla & Purana Qila, national monuments in New Delhi which resulted in the monument and its environs in a presentable condition. As a tribute to the Father of Nation, who dreamed a clean India, the MoT officials have undertaken an intensive cleanliness activity at the Martyrdom Place in Tees January Marg, New Delhi.

• The consolidated guidelines received from MoDW&S were sent to all State and UTs Govts., requesting them to undertake a fortnightly intensive campaign on cleanliness at the tourist destinations in their State and UTs, during the same period. Action taken reports from states/UTs are awaited.

• Ministry of Tourism in collaboration with the PSUs is implementing Swachhta activities at tourist destinations under the CSR scheme. A review meeting of the status of the Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives by the Public Sector Undertakings (PSU) at the Archaeological monuments already adopted by them and further adoption of more number of monuments by the PSUs was held under the chairmanship of Secretary (Tourism), in which the progress achieved by various PSUs was reviewed and modalities worked out for adoption of more number of Adarsh monuments and the other ASI monuments, which are in dire need of priority action on cleanliness, based on the study conducted by the Ministry.

• Thus Ministry is striving to take all actions making a Swachh Bharat, in respect of all the tourist destinations in the country and realise Mahatma Gandhi Ji’s dream of a clean India by his sesquicentennial (150^th year) birth anniversary celebrations in 2019.

 Sanjay Kumar/jk/Culture & Tourism/03.05.2017