The Information & Broadcasting Ministry has cleared workspace of about 11.50 lakh square feet at the offices of its departments in different parts of the country during the first phase of the cleanliness drive under the “Swachhata Abhiyan”.
The vacated spaces are located in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kurnool, Chennai, Thrissur, Thiruvananthapuram, Jabalpur, Chandigarh Lucknow, Coimbatore, Panaji, Amritsar, Sambalpur, Bhawanipatna, Puducherry, Mangaluru, Berhampur and Bhopal.
Union Information & Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur has visited several offices to supervise the audit of workspace for further action. He went to Doordarshan Kendra in Ahmedabad on September 29 as part of pre-campaign inspection. His last audit visit was at Doordarshan Kendra in Bhopal on Monday.
The scrap removed from the offices have been disposed and have yielded revenue of about ₹22 crore so far.
The Ministry plans to rent out the reclaimed workspace to other departments, which will save substantial amounts spent on renting private buildings.
“Space efficiency and co-locating various arms of I&B ministry would bring synergy among sister organisations and make available huge space for further utilisation,” said Mr. Thakur on Tuesday.
PM Modi praises measures
During his “Mann Ki Baat” address on December 25, Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised the Ministry for the cleanliness measures.
“In the past, even the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting also made a lot of effort in its offices in Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Shillong in many cities and because of that, today they have two, three floors, available completely...,” he said.
Mr. Modi said the cleanliness drive was also ensuring optimal utilisation of government resources.
“The result of these continuous efforts is that - due to the removal of garbage, removal of unnecessary items, a lot of space opens up in the offices, new space is available. Earlier, due to lack of space, offices had to be maintained on rent at far off places. These days, due to this cleanliness, so much space is available, that, now, all the offices are converging at one place,” he said.
Published - December 27, 2022 08:58 pm IST
