ONGC wins top honours at Swachhta Pakwada

State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) today bagged top honours at the Swachhta Pakwada Awards, an oil ministry initiative to honour companies and individuals doing exemplary work in cleanliness.

ONGC, besides maintaining basic hygiene and cleanliness at its facilities, planted the most number of trees and launched projects for construction of total 4,282 units of Individual Household Latrine (IHHL), school toilets or community toilets in more than 45 villages across the country, an official statement said here.

It also undertook awareness campaigns on menstrual hygiene, creating clean drinking water facilities using solar power and water ATMs, e-waste processing, clean Himalaya campaign and organic waste disposal.

The award was given away by Oil Secretary M M Kutty to ONGC Chairman and Managing Director Shashi Shanker at the function here today.

Indian Oil Corp (IOC) bagged the runner-up's award.

The Ministry celebrated Swachhta Pakhwada fortnight from July 1 to 15 with the theme 'Innovation and Sustainability'.

The innovative initiatives undertaken included Project GreenSole that involved recycling of old shoes and manufacture of 5,025 pairs of new shoes for poor school children and installation of two incinerators not requiring electricity or fuel in 118 schools in Hazira, Gujarat.

Solar-powered clean drinking water ATMs in Tripura, Jharkhand, Odisha and Assam, collection of around 700 garbage bags under Cleanathon Himalaya' programme, distribution of jute bags as replacement of plastic bags to the consumers at petrol pumps and afforestation in dry, barren lands on the sides of Highways and riverside were taken by up oil and gas PSUs, it said.

Besides corporates, cleanest petrol pumps were also awarded at the function.