Vijayawada: NTR, Visakhapatnam, and East Godavari have bagged the top three spots, in that order, in the cleanliness rankings for districts released by the state govt. ASR, Chittoor, and Vizianagaram dists finished at the bottom of the list.
The govt decided the rankings based on 14 cleanliness indicators.
Chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu held a review meeting with officials of panchayatraj and municipal administration depts on Friday to assess the Swachandhra initiatives and their progress. The govt observes ‘Swarnandhra-Swachhandra’ on the third Saturday of every month, and takes up theme-based programs every month. The initiative was launched in January with the ‘New Year Clean Start’ theme. The govt adopted ‘Source-Resource’ as the theme for February.
Naidu urged officials to consider cleanliness drive as a responsibility, not just a duty. “You should motivate people to participate in the cleanliness drive. From home to village and city, every place should be kept clean with the participation of everyone. Confining to mere sloganeering on cleanliness and greenery will not serve any purpose. The habit of cleanliness should be instilled in school children. It should become a way of life for everyone,” the chief minister said.
He suggested the Pollution Control Board (PCB) to test air quality at all vulnerable places and initiate measures to ensure air quality does not deteriorate any further. He urged officials to work together and to achieve the target of net zero pollution, irrespective of rural or urban areas.
“All dist administrations should focus on improving their cleanliness rankings. District collectors and line depts concerned should analyse where they are lacking and take remedial measures to improve their rankings,” the CM said.
