Urinating in open and spitting on the government office premises will
now attract a penalty as the Centre has issued a new Standard Operating
Procedures (SOP) for 'Swachh Bharat Mission' to ensure a clean, hygienic
and healthy work environment.
Also, littering and non-collection of construction and demolition waste by the contractor will also attract the penalty.
These SOPs have been shared with all central government ministries
recently asking them to follow the new procedures to ensure complete
sanitation in office premises, senior government officials said.
It mandates every department to form a sanitation committee under the
chairmanship of relevant Joint Secretary looking after the charge of
administration to monitor compliance to the SOP.
The SOP casts an obligation on authority concerned to "impose penalty on
defaulters for littering, spitting and open urinating" besides
conducting surprise inspections of the office premises to ensure a
clean, hygienic and healthy work environment.
"If contractors have the obligation to collect the construction and
demolition waste, it should be done immediately after all work is
finished. Failure to do so will attract penalty," says the SOPs, sent to
secretaries of all central government ministries.
The central government departments have been asked to carry out
self-assessment and ratings for the buildings on overall sanitation
infrastructure by measuring their effort in removing paan and gutkha
stains, providing dustbins and required number of urinals to meet the
cleanliness needs.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had in October 2014 launched the Swachh
Bharat Mission with an aim to make the country absolutely clean
by October 2, 2019.
All government departments have been asked to ensure collection of
waste, rubbish and debris inside and outside the building and garden or
open spaces and dispose as per set frequency, the SOP said.
An intensive cleaning of the entire office premises should be carried
out at least once in two months which should also involve participation
of all officials and staff (through Shramdaan) for disposal of redundant
or unused hardware, furniture which can be added to inventory and
re-allocated as per demand, it said.
"Weeding and recording of files should be resorted to at least once in
six months. The records in the record room should be reviewed once a
year and destroyed as per guidelines. This would ensure that constant
space is created for keeping more recorded files. If necessary extra
manpower for this purpose should be resorted to," the SOP said.
The purpose of this SOP is to improve current cleanliness levels in the
government of India offices. The primary way to achieve cleanliness is
through inculcating good sanitation and hygiene practices in employees
and visitors, it said.
