To bring down the transmission level of various infections including novel coronavirus and to ensure proper cleanliness in rural areas, the Uttar Pradesh government is carrying out rigorous cleanliness campaigns in all the revenue villages of 75 districts in the state.
Under the special sanitation drive, cleaning, sanitisation and fogging is being carried out at a rapid pace in all the 58,194 gram panchayats of UP.
As of now, the drive has been successfully conducted in almost 58,254 revenue villages of the state. In fact, the cleanliness drives and frequent cleaning of drains has started showing positive results as the rate of infection has decreased remarkably in villages.
It is worth noting that the state government is putting all energy to ensure the safety of voters in the ongoing four-phase panchayat elections of Uttar Pradesh. The drive is aimed at curbing the spread of novel coronavirus and other vector-borne diseases in rural Uttar Pradesh.
As per the order of the chief minister, the government officials carry out an inspection on a daily basis in all the villages to check if the sanitisation, fogging and cleaning work is done properly or not.
According to the daily reports, in around 19,826 revenue villages of the state, bleaching powder and sodium hypochlorite was sprayed and fogging was done in almost 12,530 revenue villages of the state during the last 24 hours itself.
So far, on the instructions of the chief minister, out of the total 97,409 revenue villages, around 58,254 revenue villages have been sprayed with street-bleaching powder, sodium hypochlorite and fogging is also being done.
The drive includes cleaning of the drains along with removal of the garbage from the village areas. Fogging is being done and pesticides are also being sprayed as per the requirement to protect the people from getting infected. About 76,004 personnel have been engaged in this special campaign under the supervision of the Rural Development Department. During this time the villagers are also being made aware of cleanliness.
"This special sanitation drive will help us contain the COVID-19 infection and other diseases like dengue, malaria and chikungunya", the officials said.
The move came on Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's directive to intensify cleanliness and sanitisation in the state during the review meeting. The chief minister said that the months from April to August was the time of spread of many types of infectious diseases and there was often an increase in cases of dengue, chikungunya, Japanese encephalitis and other infectious diseases.
"In such a situation, cleanliness and sanitisation is necessary. It will also prevent the spread of COVID-19," he said.
This campaign, which has been going on for the past one week, has also seen positive results. Generally, during the months of April-May, where patients of infectious diseases used to come in abundance to hospitals, these days these patients are few or less.
Appealing to the people to be vigilant towards cleanliness, the chief minister said that the cleanliness campaign was a big weapon in fighting not only COVID-19 but other diseases as well.
To prevent communicable diseases, cutting of bushes, marking of shallow hand pumps and removal of water-logging from the pits were done on a priority basis. Waterlogging problems were also addressed to reduce the outbreak of mosquitoes.
Spraying of anti-larvae was carried out in the drains of all gram panchayats. On the instructions of the higher officials, all the sanitation workers stayed in their gram panchayat daily from 7 am to 2 pm and engaged themselves in cleaning work.
A special monitoring team has been formed to ensure that no sanitation workers are absent.
