Swachhandhra Day on every 3rd Saturday of every month

Vijayawada: As part of measures to achieve the Swarnandhra 2047 goal, chief secretary K Vijayanand directed all departments to organise Swachhandhra Day in all government offices across the state on the third Saturday of every month. He held a video conference with secretaries and department heads from the state Secretariat on Thursday to finalise the programmes related to Swarnandhra and Swachhandhra.

Speaking on this occasion, the chief secretary said taking into account the experiences of the Swachhandra Day celebrations already held in January and February, the Swachhandra Day to be held on the 15th of this month should be conducted in a more organised and successful manner.

In addition to organising the Swachhandra Day, the details of the respective programmes should be uploaded on the website. He clarified that appropriate plans have been formulated to make Andhra Pradesh a clean, healthy and green state under Vision 2047 and that efforts should be made to achieve the goal by implementing them properly.

Vijayanand said strict measures should be taken to ban plastic items that are extremely harmful to the environment, especially single-use plastic items, and steps should be taken to replace them with environment-friendly products such as glasses, cups, plates, and carry bags.

He said that if the handloom and textiles department prepares suitable proposals for this, appropriate steps will be taken to promote them through MSME, Khadi Rural Industries Board, and Swachh Andhra Corporation. As part of the ban on plastic items, the CS said commercial taxes and industries departments should focus on preventing their production at the level of the industries.

Principal secretary, municipal administration, S Suresh Kumar, explained about the Swarnandhra and Swachhandra programmes through a Power Point presentation and said that Swachhandra is the 9th pillar of Swarnandhra Vision 2047. As part of this, steps should be taken to maintain cleanliness in all households and in every area in rural and urban areas, adoption of best practices in waste management and recycling.

Suresh Kumar said a special roadmap has already been prepared for Swarnandhra and Swachhandra (SASA) and clear guidelines have been issued on January 17 through GO No. 24. He said that nodal officers should be appointed in every department at the state level and at the district level to ensure the successful implementation of these programmes.

Moreover, regarding the programmes to be jointly organised by all the departments, Suresh Kumar stated that activities like mass cleanliness drive, tree plantation drive, waste segregation workshops, community compositing, Swachh Pledge ceremonies in public areas, Swachh Andhra Marathon, plastic collection campaign, beach cleanup drives, and management of human activities will have to be organised.

Swachhandra Corporation MD Anil Reddy, director, municipal administration department G. Sampath Kumar, law secretary Pratibha Devi, Swachhandra Corporation chief operating officer Dasharatharami Reddy and other officials participated in this meeting.

Similarly, special chief secretary, medical and health M T Krishnababu, CM secretary Pradyumna and secretaries and heads of various departments participated virtually.