Punjab Government has launched a major cleanliness campaign called "Mission Clean Punjab" to improve sanitation and cleanliness in cities and towns across state and the initiative was inaugurated by Punjab Local Government Minister Harjot Singh Bains who said the campaign aims to make Punjab clean and tidy through regular monitoring and daily inspections by senior government officials.
Under the campaign senior officers will spend one hour every morning in field to check cleanliness arrangements and according to Harjot Singh Bains cleaning operations and inspections will take place daily from 7:00 AM to 8:00 AM. The minister said a special control room has been set up at Local Government Department headquarters in Chandigarh which will monitor implementation of campaign across Punjab.
Municipal Commissioners, Joint Commissioners, Additional Deputy Commissioners (ADCs), and Executive Officers (EOs) of urban local bodies have been directed to conduct regular field inspections and senior officials will be required to remain present on ground to oversee sanitation work.
Harjot Singh Bains said inspections will also be conducted through video calls and also added that he will personally verify presence of officers in field every day between 7:00 AM and 8:00 AM through video conferencing. On Monday morning the minister reviewed attendance of Municipal Corporation Commissioners and Executive Officers from different municipal councils through a video conference and during the meeting he asked several officers to share their live locations to check whether they were carrying out field inspections.
During a video call Ludhiana Municipal Commissioner Dr. Neeru Katyal Gupta informed the minister that she was inspecting sanitation arrangements near Ludhiana bus stand and she also informed him that zonal commissioners from all four zones of Ludhiana were conducting inspections in different parts of city at the same time. The minister said detailed guidelines had already been issued to all department heads and that strict compliance of these instructions has now started and he further stated that senior officials from Local Government Department will carry out surprise inspections to verify attendance and monitor progress of the campaign.
As part of Mission Clean Punjab cities will be ranked every week based on their cleanliness performance and the ranking system has been introduced to encourage better sanitation standards among urban local bodies and in Ludhiana Municipal Corporation has prepared a city-wide sanitation plan under the campaign and the city has been divided into stretches of 10 kilometres each and a nodal officer has been assigned responsibility for maintaining cleanliness in every stretch. Municipal Commissioner Dr. Neeru Katyal Gupta said officers will be directly responsible for removing roadside waste, addressing sewer blockages quickly and ensuring proper cleaning of roads and vacant plots in their assigned areas.
To supervise overall operation and ensure coordination among departments Vineet Kumar has been appointed as overall in-charge of campaign and Zonal commissioners have also been directed to maintain strict supervision in their respective areas along with this Punjab Government has stated that Mission Clean Punjab will involve daily monitoring, field inspections, surprise checks and weekly cleanliness rankings to improve sanitation standards across state.