Noida felicitates winners of swachhta competition

NOIDA: On the occasion of Mahatma Gandhi Jayanti, the Noida authority on Saturday felicitated the winners of its ‘swachhta ranking’ competition.

The competition, announced by the authority in August this year, was held to provide cleanliness rankings in different categories, including residential body, hotel, school, hospital, and registered market association in the city.

Authority officials said that the move was aimed at encouraging citizens and other institutions for cleanliness and sanitation.

“A committee was formed to survey the premises of each participant. The first three winners in each category were felicitated by the authority at the Indira Gandhi Kala Kendra in Sector 6 on Saturday,” said Noida authority chief executive officer Ritu Maheshwari who led the felicitation programme.

In the category of apartment owners association (AOA), Grand Omaxe in Sector 93B bagged the first position, followed by Century Apartments in Sector 100 and Gulshan Vivante in Sector 137.

“Getting the first rank in the swachhta competition became possible because of the consolidated efforts of all residents of the society. We always try to maintain cleanliness and sanitation in and around our society,” said Manish Gupta, member of Grand Omaxe AOA.

The Sector 18 Market Association was awarded the first rank in market category. “We have been awarded by the authority for the third consecutive year for our efforts to keep the Sector 18 market clean and garbage free. We shall continue the good work for years to come,” said SK Jain, president of the association.

In the category of clean hospitals, Kailash Hosptal in Sector 71 got the first place while Felix Hospital in Sector 137 was ranked second.

“Bagging the first position in swachhta competition is a great honour for us. We hope we live up to the expectations in future as well,” said VB Joshi, a spokesperson of Kailash Hospital.

“A Noida authority team had inspected the hospital on maintenance, cleanliness, waste management and sanitation. We are happy that we ensured a clean environment for patients at our hospital,” said Dr DK Gupta, chairman of Felix Hospital.

After the distribution of cleanliness ranking awards, various groups working towards cleanliness in Noida were also honoured by the authority CEO.

Jan Jagran Sangathan (JJS), a self-help group, was honoured for its services towards making the city cleaner and greener. “We are grateful to the Noida authority for recognizing our organisation’s efforts. Such encouragements go a long way in motivating and inspiring us to do more,” said Madhu Mittal, founder of JJS and a Sector 50 resident.

According to Mittal, her organisation advocates against use of single-use plastic by promoting cloth bags and steel utensils.