Awards to ULBs a testimony to govt programmes like Palle & Pattana Pragathi: KTR

Hyderabad: Lauding the efforts of Municipal officials in getting 12 awards under various national-level sanitation challenges, Municipal Administration Minister KT Rama Rao said that these awards were the recognition for the government

programmes like Palle and Pattana Pragathi.Addressing a press conference at CDMA office in Hyderabad on Saturday, Rama Rao said that for the last seven and half years the State is moving towards an all-round development in a planned manner under the leadership of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao. He said that there were lots of changes in the urban development and municipal affair during the last seven and half years. There were 68 Municipalities in the State before the formation of Telangana and now there are 142 local bodies including 127 municipalities and 15 corporations.

The MAUD Minister said that people of the State largely benefitted with several government schemes like integrated veg and non-veg market, lung spaces, Haritha Haram, setting up of deluxe toilets, developing and maintaining roads and keeping the State clean and green. The government had brought some important laws and also introduced facilities like TS-iPass for self-certification of buildings.

Talking about the awards, the Minister said that Telangana State won a total of 12 awards under various national-level sanitation challenges. The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has conducted the national- level sanitation challenges and competitions as part of Swachh Survekshan, garbage-free city rating from August 2020 to May 2021 and Safai Mitra Suraksha Challenge from November 2020 to August 2021, aiming at overall sanitation improvement and enhanced citizen awareness and engagement towards waste management across all 4,300 cities and towns. The ministry would be felicitating the States during the Swachh Amrit Mahotsav in New Delhi on November 20 for which the Minister along with his team would be visiting.

Several State municipalities won Swachh SurvekshanChallenge-2021, including the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), Sircilla, Siddipet, Nizampet Corporation, Ibrahimpatnam, Ghatkesar, Kosgi, Husnabad and Secunderabad Cantonment. The awards were given among the 4,300 towns in the country, the Minister added. Rama Rao further said that the State would receive awards even in Safai Mitra Suraksha and Karimnagar Corporation was among the top three towns with three lakh or less population. In the garbage free cities category, GHMC was recognised, this is the recognition to Pattana Pragathi, said Rao. 101 ULBs achieved ODF (open-defecation free) status and eight municipalities have achieved ODF++. Under water plus city, Hyderabad was recognised. Under the Pradhan Mantri Swanidhi, Telangana stood number one. "So far we got awards for rural areas but now we are getting awards for urban areas," said Rao.

Replying to a question, Minister KTR said that one double bedroom house being constructed by Telangana was equal to ten Indiramma houses. To another question, he said that Rs 15,000 crore was spent in old city alone.