New Delhi: Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh stated on Sunday that the Centre has made up to Rs 4,085.24 crore from five-yearly cleanliness (Swachhata) campaigns that have lasted one month each since 2021 by disposing of scrap, including electronic scrap, from various central government offices as part of the Special Swachhata campaign.
The minister also revealed that another noteworthy result of the programme was the release of 231.75 lakh square feet of space for productive use, which had previously been clogged and jammed with scrap, old furniture, and rubbish.
“Interestingly, the amount of over Rs 4,085 crore earned by selling off the scrap could be the total budget of one mega space mission or multiple Chandrayaan space missions, while the total space freed was enough to bring up a huge mall or some other massive structure for economic activity,” the minister said.
Dr Singh went on to explain that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had called for Swachhata from the Red Fort’s ramparts in his first Independence Day speech. This quickly became a widespread initiative, and in the first year alone, more than four lakh restrooms were constructed. He claimed that a drive was launched at the same time to rid government offices of unnecessary office paperwork, damaged furniture, etc.
For the past three years or so, Dr Singh saw that in addition to conventional junk, there was a lot of electronic scrap in the offices that might be recycled to create riches from waste in addition to being disposed of to produce revenue for the state.
He clarified that this year’s Special Campaign 5.0, which ran from October 2 to October 31, 2025, contributed Rs. 788.53 crore to the approximately Rs. 3,300 crore earned at the conclusion of the Special Swachhata campaign 4.0 last year. Consequently, about Rs 4,085 crore has been earned thus far.
According to Dr Singh, this year’s Special Swachhata campaign 5.0 coincided with the Ministry of Science & Technology’s vast “Waste to Wealth” initiatives. For instance, CSIR-NIIST Thiruvanathapuram developed a technology that is used at AIIMS New Delhi to recycle hospital waste; CSIR-IIP Dehradun recycles cooked oil; and CSIR-CRRI New Delhi developed a technology that uses steel sludge to build roads.
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Caption: New Delhi: Union Minister Jitendra Singh addresses the audience during the inauguration of the Curtain Raiser of IISF-2025 at the National Media Centre in New Delhi on Friday, October 17, 2025. (Photo: IANS/Qamar Sibtain)
–IANS
