Aamir Khan presents Swachhata Darpan Award to Puri district

Odisha’s Puri district has bagged the Swachhata Darpan Awards 2019 from the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation (DDWS) and Ministry of Jal Shakti for innovations and initiatives for plastic waste management.

Actor and founder of the Paani Foundation, Aamir Khan presented the award to an official of the Puri district administration at a ceremony in New Delhi.

Aamir Khan then interacted with the gathering of Collectors, DDCs, CDOs and other officials from selected states. Shri Khan lauded the work done at the grassroots by the officials and shared his experience with initiatives made by Paani Foundation in the area of water conservation. The gathered officials shared best practices from their districts for promoting ODF Sustainability goals and explore areas for future initiatives with the celebrated actor.

Addressing the gathering, Secretary DDWS, Shri Parameswaran Iyer, congratulated state representatives for their commendable work and leadership in improving sanitation access in rural areas in the past five years leading to the ODF declaration of India on 2nd October 2019 under Swachh Bharat Mission – Grameen (SBM-G). He emphasized the need to keep the momentum going and ensure that any gaps which may have been left on the ground must be identified and addressed. He said that the SBM-G must ensure that no one is left behind and the objectives of the programme are now mobbing forward with overall cleanliness in villages with solid and liquid waste management (SLWM).

Worth mentioning, the Puri beach was recently recognised as the second most cleanest beach in the country.

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