Now government office canteens asked to follow Swachh Bharat mission

After Narendra Modi's diktat to government offices to participate in Swachh Bharat mission, the Department of personnel and training (DoPT) have now directed the government canteens to equally participate in the cleanliness mission and ensure that canteens are spic and span in the government buildings. 

Four days after the directive, which had asked the ministries and departments to initiate a cleanliness drive in their canteens, dna visited the canteens at Shastri Bhawan, Nirman Bhawan, Krishi Bhawan and Rail Bhawan. It is from these government buildings that most of the ministries operate.

During our visit we realised that most of the canteen managers cited short staff as a reason for not maintaining the cleanliness. 

“We are highly short staffed. Our required staff strength is 28, but we are managing with only 15 people,” said Mahavir Singh, the canteen manager of the canteen managed by Ministry of social justice and empowerment at Shastri Bhawan. 

The canteen also caters to ministries including Ministry of tribal affairs and ministry of women and child. “For every ministry two waiters are reserved for the ministers and the secretary. Apart from waiters we need people for cooking, serving and also to do the basic cleaning. Those posts are lying vacant for years,” added Singh.

While the government canteens do the basic floor and table moping, the necessary hygiene that is required while serving food goes missing. The washing areas are filthy and the staff serving food neither wear gloves nor caps while serving food.

“We have received the order to keep the canteen clean. But with our existing staff strength we cannot stretch ourselves any further,” said Rajender Kumar, manager at the canteen run by Ministry of food and public distribution at Krishi Bhawan.

The Welfare department of the ministries held a meeting with canteen committees on Tuesday where it instructed DoPT has instructed the ministers to periodically submit a pre-cleaning and post-cleaning pictures. The ministries have also been asked to upload the same on their official website.

However, confusion over the canteens given out to the private players like IRCTC and Binako prevails. Since these canteens have been outsourced to private parties the ministries do not have a direct control over them. But they too have been asked to fall in the line with the DoPT order. “Only today, we have received a mail from our head office asking to submit a weekly cleanliness report. We will comply by the order,” said Pankaj Kumar manager of IRCTC canteen at Shastri Bhawan.

An officer of the Welfare department at a ministry at Nirman Bhawan informed that a canteen committee meeting has been called to take stock of the situation. “All the canteen managers were called to discuss ways and means to carry the Swachh mission. We will view what we are lacking and how to iron out the existing issue,” said an officer of administration department at Nirman Bhawan.