The Central government announced on Friday a major clean-up drive for 100 iconic places in the country under the Swachh Bharat Mission. In the first phase, 10 places would be taken up, involving the state governments who are crucial to the success of the drive.
"To ensure better coordination with the State teams, a Video Conference was held with all Chief Secretaries and Secretaries of the relevant Departments of the above States on 31st May, 2016," an official statement said on Friday.
The learnings derived from the first phase will be used to make the drive more efficient for the remaining 90 places, it added.
The 10 places to be spruced up comprise the Taj Mahal in Agra, the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (railway station) in Mumbai, Vaishno Devi in Jammu, Tirupati Temple, Golden Temple in Amritsar, Manikarnika Ghat in Varanasi, Ajmer Sharif Dargah in Ajmer, Meenakshi Temple in Madurai, Kamakhya Temple in Guwahati and Jagannath Puri Temple in Puri.
Some of these places are not only popular pilgrimage sites within the respective communities but also attract tourists, both Indian and foreign, in large numbers.
