PU Grabs 7th Position in Swachhata Rankings-2017

By Tricitynews Reporter

Chandigarh 15^th September:- Panjab University bagged 7^th position in Government Higher Educational Institutions category in the Swachhata Rankings 2017 conducted by Ministry for Human Resource Development. The awards were presented by Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar at the Swachhata Ranking Ceremony held at New Delhi on 14^th September, 2017.

Prof. Seema Kapoor, Coordinator, Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, who attended the ceremony, informed that among those present included Dr. V.S.Chauhan, UGC Chairman, K.K.Sharma, Secretary MHRD, VLVSS Subba Rao, Economic Advisor MHRD, R. Subrahmanyam, Additional Secretary (TE) MHRD, Dr. Manpreet Singh Manna, Director (Admin.) AICTE along with Vice Chancellors, Principals and faculty members of various shortlisted institutes. On the occasion, 5 District Collectors were also awarded for ensuring Open Defecation with solid & liquid waste management facility in the village adopted by them under Unnat Bharat Abhiyan programme,

Prof. Seema Kapoor added that a total of 3500 institutions participated in the Swachhta Rankings 2017 nationwide, of which 174 were shortlisted on various parameters like adequacy of toilet numbers in hostels and admin blocks, number of buildings in campus & student strength, green cover, duration of running water, water purity, facility and modernity of kitchen, apparel of kitchen & serving staff, adequacy of garbage collection and its disposal system and overall cleanliness and ambience.

Col. G.S. Chadha (Retd.), Registrar, Panjab University informed that 85% weightage was given to above parameters whereas 15% weightage was given to whether the institutions have adopted any neighboring locality or village to spread awareness and activities in Swachhta. He conveyed that PU  adopted 5 U.T. villages under Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, namely Khuda Lahora, Khuda Ali Sher, Sarangpur, Dadu Majra and Dhanas in 2015 and a number of PU departments are actively involved in the extension activities and are regularly conducting awareness and sensitization programmes concerning cleanliness, healthy sanitation practices, personal & domestic hygiene, safe water, usage of toilet and harmful effects of open defecation, etc.

Prof. Kapoor conveyed that MHRD minister announced during the ceremony that Swachhta Ranking exercise will be conducted every year to motivate and galvanize the institutions for achieving higher standards in cleanliness and hygiene.

VLVSS Subba Rao, Economic Advisor MHRD gave an overview of the ranking exercise and told that few more parameters will be added for next year Swachhta Ranking Exercise viz. saving water and electricity, managing waste at source, etc.

Prof. Arun Grover, Vice Chancellor congratulated all the stakeholders of Panjab University for receiving this prestigious award. He applauded the efforts of Horticulture unit in maintaining a green cover of 60.1% and for cleanliness around the campus. He also appreciated the efforts of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan committee of PU, NSS unit and various other departments, who are regularly conducting various activities like cleanliness and tree plantation drives, celebration of international/national days of importance, yoga/health/dental camps, signature campaigns/painting competitions/walkathon/street plays/lectures/workshops on various topics like cleanliness, organ donation, hand washing, sanitation, solid waste management, water pollution, skill development and digital literacy, gender equality, women empowerment, etc.