GUWAHATI: Meghalaya was on Tuesday honoured with the Swachh Survekshan Gramin 2018 award for securing the third rank among the Northeast states, after Sikkim and Mizoram.
The award was presented by Union minister Uma Bharti to a delegation of Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) Meghalaya, comprising mission director, WR Lyngdoh and state coordinator, A. Lyngkhoi at a national function in New Delhi on Tuesday.
“Our state was ranked awarded a state-level Swachh Surveskshan Gramin award 2018 for securing third place among the Northeastern states. Meghalaya was ranked third in the Northeast zone,” Lyngkhoi told The Shillong Times.
Sources said that Haryana in the north, Chhattisgarh in east, Andhra Pradesh in south and Gujarat in west zone were the top ranked states respectively under Swachh Survekshan Gramin 2018 while Dadra and Nagar Haveli secured the first position among the Union Territories.
The ranking approach used for scoring states on a combined score of 100 points included three sub components such as direct observation in public places, citizens’ feedback and service level progress status.
The Union ministry of drinking water and sanitation had commissioned Swachh Survekshan Grameen 2018 to provide a national ranking of all districts and states of India on the basis of the quantitative and qualitative sanitation parameters.
An independent survey agency was appointed by the central government to conduct the sampling survey of selected villages in which samples of households, schools, anganwadi centres, churches, market places and public places were assessed for their cleanliness status.
Student awarded
Banica Nongrum, a Class V student of Ingsaw Govt LP School in Ri Bhoi district, was conferred the third prize of a competition, “Heroes of School Children for Swachh Bharat” among all the states by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for writing a letter to him on Swacch Bharat.
The award was received by Banica on Tuesday at Rashtrapati Bhavan Cultural Centre in the presence of United Nations secretary general, Antonio Gutteres, who is currently in Delhi.
Banica had in the post card addressed to the Prime Minister wrote about the various activities undertaken under the cleanliness mission comprising competitions (including essay and quiz contests) on the clean drive and practices such as hygiene maintenance, reduction and reuse of wastes, implementation of water harvesting in schools.
She concluded the letter with a wish: “We would be happy to become school brand ambassadors under the campaign of Clean India.”