UP announces cash prizes under state cleanliness drive

Keeping up with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Swacchh Bharat Abhiyan (Clean India Campaign), Uttar Pradesh has launched a similar campaign in government hospitals and major urban centres.

Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday announced that the best performing hospitals and urban civic wards under the Clean-Green Campaign would be given cash prizes. Under the campaign, the winning hospitals would be awarded Rs 50 lakh, Rs 30 lakh and Rs 20 lakh for securing first, second and third position respectively.

The prize money would be distributed equally amongst the sanitation staff, gardeners and ward boys without discriminating between permanent, temporary, contractual and outsourced staffers.

Similarly, the best performing wards in Lucknow, Agra and Mathura would be given cash prizes in this manner. In Lucknow and Agra, two and three wards would be selected for the respective second and third positions.

This cash prize would be distributed among all sanitation staff without discrimination.

In the recent visit to his parliamentary constituency of Varanasi, PM Modi had nominated Yadav as one of the nine famous personalities from UP to spearhead the cleanliness campaign in the state.

Modi had himself picked up a spade to clean a portion of Assi Ghat on the banks of river Ganga, where a huge mound of silt had deposited. On his nomination, Yadav had tried to counter Modi, saying that the state government had already been working on its ‘Clean-Green’ mission and was committed to the cause.