SJVN Commemorates 150th Birth Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi during Swachhta Pakhwara

SJVN Commemorates 150th Birth Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi during Swachhta Pakhwara

Shimla: SJVN is observing Swachhta Pakhwara beginning 16th May to 31st May 2019 in all its offices and projects throughout the country with a host of activities to promote and propagate the mission of Swachh Bharat in a big way. The Pakhwara activities commenced on 16th May with administration of a pledge to the employees in all the offices of the company. In Shakti Sadan Corporate Head Quarters in Shimla, pledge was administered by Chairman and Managing Director Shri N L Sharma. During the pledge ceremony Director Finance Shri A.S. Bindra, Director (Electrical) Shri RK Bansal and Director (Personnel) Ms. Geeta Kapur were also present.
 
In his address CMD Shri NL Sharma  said that this year we are celebrating the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi and dedicating Swachata Pakhwara to Mahatma Gandhiji.  He stated that we should adopt cleanliness in our habit and he hoped that we all would follow the principles of Father of Nation and work for the clean India.
 
The sewage treatment project of SJVN and many other cleanliness drives carried by SJVN have been praised by Ministry of Power and conferred with First Swachhata Sarvekshan Award among all PSU’s of MOP in the year 2018.
 
During the fortnight, SJVN will engage itself in various Swachhata Activities like cleanliness at Sankatmochan Temple, Shimla and its premises. The dustbins are also proposed to be installed in schools, villages, market places, park, Railway Stations, temples and other public places. In order to propagate the message of cleanliness, the company will organize the motivational speeches and competitions in schools at project sites. 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 for wider dissemination of the campaign. 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 SwachhVidyalaya 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 observed 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 for constructing the toilets, but SJVN also provide expenses for 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.

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