New Delhi: Giving a new direction to healthy competition among cities for cleanliness in the country, the Ministry of Urban Affairs has announced the creation of a new category of competition in the form of Golden City Club. Its objective is to create a separate group of cities that are consistently at the top in the cleanliness rankings and to provide equal competition among the rest of the cities.

It is worth noting that cities like Indore and Surat have been securing top positions in cleanliness rankings for years and their dominance is such that the result of cleanliness competition between cities is almost pre-decided. To overcome this situation, Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Manohar Lal said on Friday that the Golden City Club category will be there in all categories and only those cities will be included in it which have been at the top position.

2.60 lakh places cleaned during Swachhata Pakhwada

Giving information about the events related to the Swachhta Pakhwada running from 17th September to 2nd October, Manohar Lal said that in the new system, there will be a provision for cities to come in the Golden City Club and for the cities already included in this category to go to the general category on poor performance. Manohar Lal also informed that this time a target has been set to select and clean 2.60 lakh places in the Swachhta Pakhwada.

These places will be cleaned in such a way that cleanliness will be visible in them within a certain time frame. On this occasion, Union Jal Shakti Minister CR Patil said that five lakh vehicles are being operated to collect garbage from houses in four lakh villages and soon this facility will be made available to all six lakh villages.

3.4 crore houses became ODF Plus in ten years

Patil said that in the ten years of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, 3.4 crore houses in villages have become ODF Plus. Families in ODF and ODF Plus villages have saved an average of Rs 50,000 in health expenses every year. WHO has acknowledged that the reduction of three lakh people dying due to diarrhea in 2019 as compared to 2014 is actually the result of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.