The credit for Indore getting top rank for the sixth time in a row in the Centre's 'Swachh Survekshan' awards must go to 'safai mitras' (cleanliness and conservancy workers) and citizens instead of officials, senior Madhya Pradesh Bharatiya Janata Party leader Kailash Vijayvargiya said. Indore was followed by Surat in Gujarat and Navi Mumbai in Maharashtra in the cleanest city category of the 2022 edition of the awards.
"Nobody has the courage to say so except me. Sometimes one must speak bitterly too. As per me, the credit for the win goes to safai mitras and secondly the citizens. They are very cultured and disciplined due to their ancestors," the BJP national general secretary said at a function to felicitate civic workers on Thursday.
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Asserting that one need not "massage (the ego of)" officials, Vijayvargiya asked if the collector of Indore managed to get Ujjain top rank in the cleanliness category when he was posted there.
"Indore is first because of its citizens and not because of officials, but you are not giving credit to the people here and instead praising bureaucrats for it," he told the gathering.
(With PTI inputs)
