Telangana State tops Swachch Darpan rankings

Hyderabad: The Telangana State has bagged first rank in Swachch Darpan programme at national level and six districts won prizes, according to state Panchayat Raj Minister Errabelli Dayakar Rao.

The minister appreciated the officials, MPs, MLAs and local leaders for their role in making Swachch Darpan programme a success and bagging several prizes at national level.

A survey by the Union government has revealed that Telangana State emerged as Number One in the scheme and its six districts shown best performance, he informed.

The minister attributed national rank in Swachch programme to the efforts of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao and ensuring that the villagers use constructed toilets and maintaining clean and green environments.

The State was giving top priority for the use of toilets, promoting greenery under Haritha Haram and entrusting the job to the village level officials and sarpanches in this regard, he claimed.

"In the third phase of survey by the Centre, Telangana State stood top in the list of States and we are proud for that", Dayakar Rao said.

Union Ministry for Water Resources has revealed the details of the survey, he said. Among 700 districts taken for survey, the Centre found that eight districts got first rank which includes six districts of Telangana State alone, the minister informed.

"This is a great achievement and we will make further steps to create awareness among the people in villages on Swachch Telangana and Haritha Haram and use of toilets by avoiding open defecation, he said.

Telangana districts which stood first include Warangal Urban, Jagtial, Kamareddy, Peddapally, Rajanna-Sircilla and Karimnagar.