SJVN to promote Swachh Bharat Abhiyan during Swachht Pakhwada

SJVN is observing Swachhta Pakhwaara beginning 16^th May to 31^st May 2018 at all its offices and projects throughout the country with a host of activities to promote and propagate the mission of Swachha Bharat in a big way. The pakhwaara activities commenced on  16^th May with administration of a pledge to the employees at all the offices of the company. At the Corporate Office, the pledge was administered by Shri Kanwar Singh, Director (Civil).

During the fortnight, the company will engage itself in various swachhta activities like cleanliness at Shiv Temple at Malyana where separate dust bins for wet and dry garbage (blue and green) will also be installed in the temple premises. The dustbins are also proposed to be installed near various public places like bus stops, temples premises, etc. In order to propagate the message of swachhta, the company will also organize motivational speech and competitions in schools at Shimla while similar activities are proposed to be organized at the company’s projects as well. Other activities include tree plantation drives, essay writing competitions for the school students, adoption of iconic places like temples, heritage buildings, adoption of villages, public places, construction of toilets in village schools, etc. As a unique activity, to promote cleanliness and hygiene, the company will also distribute sanitary napkins among the girl students in project area schools. The message of Swachha Bharat will also be propagated by organizing workshops and nukkad nataks in villages. Not only employees and their family members, the participation of villagers will also be ensured in the project areas through gram sabhas and panchayats.

For promoting the national mission of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, SJVN has already undertaken a number of projects not only in the areas of its operations but also in other states. Beginning with the Swachh Vidyalaya Abhiyan of the Government of India, SJVN had undertaken construction of 2421 toilets in 1530 schools of Himachal Pradesh, Uttarkhand, Bihar and Arunachal Pradesh. The achievement of constructing the 2421 toilets was against the target of 2271 given by the Union Ministry of Power. The major objective of constructing the toilets was to provide privacy and adequate sanitary facilities to girl students at schools. It has been found that the provision of basic facilities of good hygiene and privacy has led to higher attendance of girls in schools to complete their education against their dropouts being experienced earlier.

It was not only in constructing the toilets, the company also came forward to provide for expenses on their maintenance by offering an amount of Rs.5000 per toilet during each financial year.

Further, SJVN has provided a Sewerage Treatment Plant of one million litres per day capacity in Jhakri village of district Shimla. The project under the mission of Open Defecation free (ODF) mission of the Government of India was constructed at a cost of more than Rs 12 crore and is benefitting about 1000 households of the village.