New Delhi, October 5: The Maharshi Dayanand University (MDU) in Haryana has been recognised as the cleanest government varsity by the Union Human Resource Development Ministry.
The MDU was followed by Guru Nanak Dev University in Punjab and the Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences (ILBS) in Delhi. The fourth and fifth ranks were bagged by Algappa University in Tamil Nadu’s Karaikudi city and Acharya Nagarjuna University in Andhra Pradesh’s Guntur town.
The “Swachh Campus rankings” under different categories were announced by Union Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar in Delhi this week.
Cleanliness must be a habit
“Cleanliness must be a habit among students and it can be developed only in educational institutions. Therefore the ministry is promoting and awarding universities for their efforts to promote cleanliness on campuses,” Javadekar was quoted as saying by a national daily.
“We should educate our children and society about solid waste management, electric waste management and water harvesting techniques to make our country eco-friendly and more clean,” he added.
Among the residential campuses of private universities, Symbiosis International University in Pune topped the list, followed by O P Jindal Global University in Sonipat, Haryana, KLE Academy of Higher Education and Research in Karnataka’s Belagavi town and Manipal University in Jaipur.
The ITM University in Raipur ranked first among cleanest non-residential campuses of private universities. The Northcap University in Gurugram and Dr C V Raman University in Bilaspur bagged the second and third positions respectively in the category.
In the technical institutions’ category, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham in Coimbatore bagged the top position, followed by IIT Guwahati, Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan University in Bhubhaneshwar and the Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) in New Delhi.
Swachhata Rankings to encourage hygienic campuses
Initiated by the Department of Higher Education, the Swachhata Rankings exercise encourages healthy competition among higher educational institutions for keeping and maintaining hygienic campuses.
This year, a total of 6,029 institutions participated in the rankings, which were double the response from educational institutions compared to last year.
Of the total participated institutions, 2430 have solar power in their campus and 940 more are under progress. This is nearly 56 per cent solar coverage.
As many as 3,577 institutions have rainwater harvesting facility, which is nearly 60 per cent coverage. As many as 5,607 institutions have 24 hours running water and 3,915 campuses have more than 30 per cent green cover. Some leading institutions have also up to 60 per cent green cover.
Besides, 2,557 institutions have full composting facility in their campuses.
