Govt earns over Rs 650 cr from scrap disposal during cleanliness drive

The Centre has earned over Rs 650 crore from disposal of scrap during the recently-concluded cleanliness campaign, an official statement issued on Saturday said.

The special campaigns conducted by the government from 2021-24 have generated a revenue of Rs 2,364 crore through disposal of scrap, it said.

Union Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh said that the special campaign 4.0 was India's largest campaign for institutionalising swachhata and reducing pendency in the government offices and has witnessed many best practices and milestones.

Inspired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's directions, the saturation approach was adopted in special campaign 4.0 for swachhata and reducing pendency.

"Special campaign 4.0 generated revenues of more than Rs 650 crore in the October 2-31, 2024 period," said the statement issued by the Personnel Ministry.

The special campaign 4.0 has seen swachhata campaigns being undertaken in more than 5.97 lakh sites and has resulted in freeing 190 lakh square feet of space for effective office use, it added.

Singh said with every passing year, the size and scale of the special campaign is increasing with more than 5.97 lakh sites covered in 2024 as against 2.59 lakh sites in 2023.

The special campaign 4.0 was reviewed by the cabinet ministers, ministers of state and secretaries to the government of India providing leadership and guidance in implementation.

The progress of special campaign 4.0 was monitored on a dedicated portal (https:cdpm.nic.in/SpecialCampaign4) on a daily basis.

Singh appreciated the reduction in pendency in the central secretariat under the special campaign 4.0 with most of the ministries/ departments achieving 90-100 per cent of reported targets.

He called on all officials to continue the momentum of special campaign 4.0 throughout the year and make it a way of life.

Special campaign 4.0 concluded on October 31, 2024 with outstanding results and after collating all the data, the evaluation phase will start from November 14, the statement said.

Some of the best practices in institutionalising swachhata that emerged in the Special campaign 4.0 are "Curative preservation of Manuscript 'Ramayana', Asiatic Society, Kolkata, Ministry of Mines", "Art sculpture made out of waste aluminium, JNARDCC, Nagpur, Ministry of Mines", "Crafting a 12.5 feet tall idol of Lord Ganesha with scrap material, Raipur, Ministry of Railways" and "Disposal of about 105.72 lakh sticks of smuggled cigarettes worth Rs 8.7 crores by CBIC" among others.