Ten new Swachh Iconic Places of 2018 launched under Phase III of Swachh Iconic places under Swachh Bharat Mission in Uttarakhand: Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation

On June 12, 2018, 10 new places have been inducted in the Phase III of Swachh Iconic Places under Swachh Bharat Mission and the SIP mission was launched at Mana village which is situated close to the Badrinath temple in Uttarakhand.

Key points:

• The project is being coordinated by Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation with the support of State governments and local administration.
• The 10 new places are : RaghavendraSwamy Temple (Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh); Hazardwari Palace (Murshidabad, West Bengal); Brahma Sarovar Temple (Kurukshetra, Haryana); VidurKuti (Bijnor, Uttar Pradesh); Mana village (Chamoli, Uttarakhand); Pangong Lake (Leh-Ladakh, J&K); Nagvasuki Temple (Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh); ImaKeithal/market (Imphal, Manipur); Sabarimala Temple (Kerala); and Kanvashram (Uttarakhand).
• These new sites have joined the 20 iconic places under Phase I & II where special Sanitation work is already underway.
• He also launched four major SLWM activities in Mana village, including community soak pits, compost pits, separation centre for organic and inorganic waste, and naalis for liquid waste with a sanctioned amount of Rs. 26.87 lakhs.
• The Phase I iconic places launched in 2016 were: Ajmer Sharif Dargah, CST Mumbai ,Golden Temple, Kamakhya Temple, MaikarnikaGhat, Meenakshi Temple, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi, Shree Jagannath Temple, The TajMahal and Tirupati Temple.
• Phase II of Swachh Iconic Places was launched in Nov 2017, and included Gangotri, Yamunotri, Mahakaleshwar Temple, Charminar, Convent and Church of St. Francis of Assissi, Kalady, Gommateswara, BaidyanathDham, Gaya Tirth and Somnath temple.
• Phase I iconic sites have seen notable initiatives taken up, like improved sewage infrastructure, drainage facilities, installation of Sewage Treatment Plant (STP), improved sanitation facilities, water vending machines (Water ATMs), Solid and Liquid Waste Management (SLWM) set-up, structure restoration, roads maintenance, lighting arrangements, beautification of parks, better transport facilities in approach and access areas besides at the main sites.
• The annual review of Phase I & II iconic sites for assessing the progress is scheduled at iconic site, Charminar, Hyderabad later in June 2018.

About Swachh Iconic Place :

• The Swachh Iconic Places is an initiative under the Swachh Bharat Mission. It is a special clean-up initiative focused on cleaning up 100 selected iconic heritage, spiritual and cultural places in the country. The initiative is being coordinated by the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation in association with the Ministry of Urban Development, Ministry of Culture, Ministry of Tourism and the concerned State governments.
• The goal of the Initiative is to improve the cleanliness conditions at these places to a distinctly higher level.

About Swachh Bharat Mission:

• Launched in 2014, Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (SBA) (or Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) or Clean India Mission in English) is a campaign in India that aims to clean up the streets, roads and infrastructure of India’s cities, smaller towns, and rural areas. The objectives of Swachh Bharat include eliminating open defecation through the construction of household-owned and community-owned toilets.
•  Run by the Government of India, the mission aims to achieve an Open-Defecation Free (ODF) India by 2 October 2019, the 150th anniversary of the birth of Mahatma Gandhi, by constructing 90 million toilets in rural India at a projected cost of Rs.1.96 lakh crore (US$30 billion).
• Till now 7.42 crore toilets have been built.
• The other name of the campaign is ‘Satyagrah se Swachhagrah’.
• Slogan is ‘One step towards cleanliness’.