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NEW DELHI: The government has earned little over Rs 800 crore from the sale of scrap during the month-long cleanliness drive conducted in October, which is enough to buy seven Vande Bharat trains, and also freed around 233 lakh sq ft of space. The past five rounds of the special campaign for cleanliness across central govt offices has generated around Rs 4,100 crore revenue by selling scrap, which personnel minister Jitendra Singh said was similar to the total budget of one mega space mission or multiple Chandrayaan missions. In these drives, govt entities and subsidiaries have cleared 923 lakh sq ft of space. The minister on X said total space freed in the past five special campaigns was enough to bring up a big mall or some other massive infrastructure. In 2021, govt had decided to run a special swachhta campaign from Oct 2 to Oct 31. The department of administrative reforms and public grievances coordinates this drive through collaboration across 84 central ministries and departments.‘Thrust also on turning waste into wealth‘ For the intensive drive and success of the campaign, central ministers briefed officers, held interactions with staff and chaired review meetings on reducing pendency. Similarly, tasks were spelt out for secretaries and director generals, which included review of the campaign on weekly basis and for reducing pendencies. Central Public Works Department (CPWD) had to mobilise personnel for cleanliness of outdoor spaces across government offices. Officials said that while every ministry and department must take cleanliness, reducing the number of physical files and pending references as priority, these get special focus during the monthlong campaign and there is a lot of thrust also on how to convert waste to wealth.
