The Haryana Government has decided to award Swachhata Shehri Puraskar every month as an incentive to the cleanest Ward in each Municipal Corporation, Municipal Council and Municipal Committee of the state.
The award money would be Rs two lakh for the Municipal Corporation Ward, Rs one lakh for Municipal Council Ward and Rs 50,000 for Municipal Committee Ward.
"The best wards of Urban Local Bodies for the month of July would be honoured on Independence day," Development and Panchayats Department said here today.
The main objective of the scheme is to motivate and create a sense of competition among the ULBs to promote accelerated sanitation and eliminate the practice of open defecation in the urban areas of the state, he said.
All best wards of ULBs would be recommended in the month of July every year and honoured on Independence Day.
He said that the award scheme would also recognise the achievements of Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) which had made sincere efforts to ensure cleanliness.
The best performing RWA would be selected by the District Level Sanitation Committee and award money of Rs 50,000 would be awarded to RWA in a month in each district.
He said the cities must be made defecation-free. These must eliminate the practice of manual scavenging and provide adequate personnel protection equipment for the safety of sanitation workers.
The other features included safe and efficient management of municipal waste-water and storm water drainage, 100 per cent collection of solid waste and its safe disposal, improved public health outcomes and environmental standards, he added.
