Adilabad shows the way, bags Swachh Vidyalay Award

Adilabad: The Adilabad district, which made a significant progress in creating clean and green campuses of government schools, has won the Prime Minister’s award. The district has been selected for Swachh Vidyalaya Award for transforming its government schools by constructing toilets and planting saplings in schools to create hygienic and green environment.

In order to keep the schools clean, the the district administration had appointed cleaners at several government schools on monthly salary of Rs 2,500. Thanks to several similar initiatives by the administration, many government schools in districts now have clean premises.

Talking to The Hans India here on Wednesday, District Collector Jagan Mohan said that he was happy that the district has been chosen for the Swachh Vidyalaya Award. He will receive from Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi on April 21. The collector said that all houses in as many as 54 villages have individual toilets. With the construction of toilets in schools, the officials are hoping to control the dropout rate in government schools, especially in the girls’ schools.

Earlier, the students in many schools faced a great difficulty due to absence of toilets. However, the officials feel that the situation is getting better now. There are many instances, where students quit studies due to non-availability of toilets. To prevent this, the state government built 4,312 toilets in six months in all the 3,022 schools at a cost of Rs 40 crore.

Besides providing water supply to the toilets, the school management committees had also appointed 972 cleaners. This has helped the authorities to keep the schools clean. Impressed with the progress, the committee which studied government schools in 87 districts had appreciated the school management committees for their accomplishments in Adilabad district.

Out of 87 districts, 10 districts, including Adilabad district, stood out with their exemplary performance. The school managements are also ensuring that toilets get continuous water supply. Saplings have also been planted on the school premises as part of the Harita Haram, transforming the image of government schools.

The cleaners have been playing a crucial role in nursing the plants. Government employees’ Associations’ leader Ashok appreciated the government schools in the district for getting shortlisted for the Swachh Vidyalaya Award. Appreciating government schools for bagging the award, people in general and parents in particular have been exhorting the state government to groom government schools on a par with corporate schools.