The Union Minister for Drinking Water and Sanitation Narendra Singh Tomar has stated that government will carry out a drive to clean 10 iconic places in the country as part of a pilot project under the Swachh Bharat mission. Mr. Tomar said his ministry was in the process of selecting 100 iconic places for cleaning under the mission and most would be either tourist or religious spots.
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.
Some key points about Swachh Bharat Mission
- Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi launched the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan or Clean India Mission on the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi on October 2, 2014 at Rajghat in New Delhi.
- The mission is estimated to cost around 62,009 crore rupees, of which 14,623 crore rupees will be borne by the Union Government.
- Government has made building toilets a priority and he has pledged that every household will have a toilet by 2019.
- The government has also set up a Swachchh Bharat Kosh, encouraging companies to donate funds from their CSR budget to improve sanitation facilities in the country.
- Industry chamber CII has announced it would mobilise its members to build 10,000 toilets across the country by 2015-16. Earlier a number of companies including Tata Consultancy Services and Bharti Foundation, an arm of Bharti Enterprises had pledged a total of Rs 300 crore each to build toilets in schools. Vedanta, which has oil and gas wells, mines and power stations, said it was already constructing 30,000 toilets in rural Rajasthan and had plans to build 10,000 more.
