Centre frees up space equal to four Rashtrapati Bhavans; earns Rs 40 crore from scrap sale

The government has freed up space equivalent to four Rashtrapati Bhavans in the massive cleanliness drive that ended on 31 October, News18 has learnt. Around 8.06 lakh square feet of space has been freed by weeding out 13.73 lakh files between 2-31 October, as part of the special drive directed by the prime minister last month. The floor space of the Rashtrapati Bhavan is around two lakh square feet. The government has sold scrap worth nearly Rs 40 crore from the entire exercise. The result is much cleaner and roomier government offices and buildings, senior government officials told News18. “The implementation phase of the exercise ended 31 October. Figures will be updated by ministries till 8 November. These figures are massive,” a senior government official told News18. The total target of files to be weeded out is 15.23 lakh files and the same could be achieved when the figures are updated by 8 November. The government has also disposed of 2.92 lakh public grievances in the said period out of the nearly 3.28 lakh which are overdue, along with disposing nearly 18,000 appeals filed with higher authorities. Nearly 8,300 pending references from MPs have been cleared and over 950 parliamentary assurances have been responded to in the drive. Around 940 state government references from chief ministers have also been responded to. The government also carried out close to 5,000 cleanliness drives in the said period and eased out 685 rules or processes as part of simplification of the rules. News18 had first reported the progress of this drive on 27 October. The prime minister had ordered the drive from 2 October to weed out all non-necessary government files and free up office space, as well as clear pendency of public grievances and references from MPs.