Rourkela, Dec 4: “Every talk on Swachhta brings back memories of Mahatma Gandhi. He always outlined the need to maintain sanitation and cleanliness around us. He opined that sanitation is as important as independence. So, clean surrounding is the key to a prosperous and healthy living”, said Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik while launching the Advanced Sanitation Programme for Sundargarh district. 

The CM flagged off the programme today, covering Rourkela Municipal Corporation, Biramitrapur Municipality and Kutra and Koira blocks.

Under the programme, over 190 advanced machines and vehicles are provided to facilitate sanitation management in the said areas. At the occasion, 4 Micro Composting Centres have also been inaugurated in Rourkela. A total of over 69 crore rupees is allotted for the project funded by District Mineral Foundation (DMF),Sundargarh and Rourkela Municipal Corporation.

CM Naveen Patnaik further said, “The sanitation workers play an indispensable role by keeping our surroundings clean and safe. We should appreciate their role as the prime ‘Sevaks’of the society. Similarly, under Mission Shakti, Women members of SHGs in the state are being empowered to handle modern sanitation operations. They spread awareness among people, handle door to door garbage collection, and manage micro composting centres etc, thus contributing largely to the sanitation landscape in the state.”  

“The sanitation scenario of Smart City Rourkela is going to be transformed. The tasks earlier carried out manually by sanitation workers will largely be done using machines thus delivering quality services to citizens. Additionally, the program shall ensure safety and dignity to the sanitation workers. More machines and manpower will be provided in due course of time to further enhance the quality of service delivery”, informed Collector & DM Nikhil Pavan Kalyan in his welcome address.