Govt to clean 10 iconic places under Swachh Bharat Mission

Government will carry out a drive to clean ten iconic places in the country, including Taj Mahal, Vaishno Devi temple and Ajmer Sharif, as part of a pilot project under the Swachh Bharat mission, Union Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said on Friday.

Tomar said his ministry is in the process of selecting 100 iconic places for cleaning under the mission and most will be either tourist or religious spots.

"As part of Swachh Bharat Mission to clean and sanitise the entire country, the Ministry has identified 10 such iconic places to start cleanliness drive as part of the pilot project under this mission," the Drinking Water and Sanitation Minister said.

The places which have been selected are Vaishno Devi temple in Jammu and Kashmir, Taj Mahal in Uttar Pradesh, Tirupati temple in Andhra Pradesh, Golden Temple in Punjab, Ajmer Sharif in Rajasthan, Jagannath temple in Orissa, Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus in Maharashtra, Manikarnika Ghat in Uttar Pradesh, Meenakshi Temple in Tamil Nadu and Kamakhya Temple in Assam.

Once this pilot project is completed, the govt will carry out a similar cleanliness drive at the remaining 90 places, Tomar said.

Sharing the details of the project, Drinking Water and Sanitation Secretary Parameswaran Iyer said the ministry is taking help of experts from World Bank to make this project successful.

"We are evaluating various models and practises which have been followed in various countries for cleaning and sanitising and trying to find out out which are relevant can be adapted here," Iyer said.

The Secretary also said the ministry has approached various corporate groups for financing the ldrive at these iconic places.