Swachh Bharat: CPWD begins lifting ‘zero-value goods’ from government offices and buildings

NEW DELHI: How to dispose of discarded furniture, e-waste or unused vehicles has been the biggest headache for the Centre. But, it seems, the Modi government has found a solution to its in-house ‘Swachh Bharat’ issue.
Rather than the individual ministries, the government has asked the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) to do the job. Starting Monday, the CPWD has started lifting all discarded or unused goods from government offices and buildings. The ministries have been asked to put down these items as “zero value” in their asset registers instead of auctioning them and told that they no longer control the discarded items. This means individual ministries cannot auction the materials anymore.

But what will the CPWD do with the materials is still unclear — the director general, CPWD, has been simply asked to treat the discarded goods as “zero-value garbage”, take pictures of the lifting activity and upload them on Swachh Bharat portal.

“This will clean up government offices of all such waste in the next fortnight… CPWD is in charge of maintenance of all government buildings and this will now be part of its mandate,” a senior government official said. While a record number of files were weeded out in earlier cleanliness drives, discarded furniture, e-waste and condemned vehicles continue to rot in government offices.

All ministries have not been able to auction such materials in time as it is a longdrawn-out process. A special fortnight-long cleanliness drive has been launched in all government offices from Monday till May 31, with a special focus on the cleaning of rooftops as waste is generally dumped there to escape scrutiny and visibility.

Various buildings like Nirman Bhawan, Shastri Bhawan, Krishi Bhawan, Paryatan Bhawan, Lok Nayak Bhawan, Pushpa Bhawan, Seva Bhawan, Nirvachan Sadan, Udyog Bhawan, NITI Aayog, IP Bhawan, ISTM Building, North Block and CGO Complex are under special focus. All officers have been told to ensure redundant papers and publications lying on their desks are weeded out at the earliest and ensure cleanliness of their tables, racks and almirahs.