GUWAHATI, Sept 16 - IIT Guwahati is the fifth among the top cleanest government institutions in India.
This was declared at an award ceremony of �Swachhta� Ranking 2017 of higher educational institutions held in New Delhi on September 14.
Union Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar gave away the prizes to the awardees.
The MHRD Swachhta Ranking was an exercise based on the principles of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan to rank higher educational institutions in terms of cleanliness and hygiene.
Parameters for a clean campus were formulated, like student/toilet ratio, kitchen hygiene, availability of running water, modernity of toilet and kitchen equipment, campus green cover, garbage disposal in hostels and academic buildings, disposal techniques, water supply systems and also a certain weightage to whether the institutions has adopted any neighbouring locality or village to spread awareness and activities in Swachhta.
About 3,500 higher educational institutions participated in the ranking process. The top 174 institutions were shortlisted as per criteria and officials from UGC and AICTE inspected the premises of all the 174 institutions. Finally, out of the 174 institutions, the top 25 institutions were selected across four categories, viz., universities, technical institutions, colleges and government institutions.
Speaking on the success of achieving the rank, Prof Gautam Biswas, Director of IITG said, �The award is a recognition to the tireless effort of the whole IIT Guwahati fraternity, including faculty members, students, research scholars, staff and officers, to build this institute a world class one. I am very happy that our successes in research and teaching are complemented by campus cleanliness too.�
He also referred to the hard work and dedication of the institution�s entire cleaning team and garbage disposal staff, �whose sincere efforts always keep this campus clean�.