DU to award credits to NSS, NCC students involved in Swachata Abhiyan

The University of Delhi is planning to make NCC cadets and NSS volunteers the official frontrunners of the DU Swachata Abhiyan, and award them 'compensatory credits' for the same. "The cleanliness campaign can't be a single person or single department drive, but someone has to lead the way. We plan to involve the NSS and NCC in a major way," the varsity's Vice Chancellor Dinesh Singh said. "Though cleanliness campaign is already a part of their activities, we would like to involve them in a more consistent fashion.

"I will propose before the Academic Council (AC) to work out ways and means to provide the students 'compensatory credits' when they are pulled off from their classes for this drive. This way, we will be able to inculcate it as part of curriculum," he said. According to varsity records, around 4,000 students are enrolled with the National Cadet Corps (NCC) in 45 out of the 65 DU colleges. "While the number of seats for NCC students vary from 55 to 160 in each college, the number of seats for National Service Scheme (NSS) volunteers go up to 200 in all the colleges," said Captain Parminder Sehgal, Programme Coordinator for NSS and NCC, DU.

In line with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan, Delhi University had launched a cleanliness campaign called 'DU Swachata Abhiyan' on October 2. A 20-member committee had been constituted for spreading awareness about cleanliness, hygiene and safety. "The committee is also conducting weekly monitoring drives to evaluate the work done in this respect across the campuses," Joint Dean of Student's Welfare, Malay Neerav said.

The varsity had also joined hands with the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) to undertake the cleanliness campaign and roped in around 100 workers from the civic body which will help the students and teachers in the cleanliness drive.