Government earns nearly ₹4100 crore by disposing of scrap from offices in five years

Union Minister Jitendra Singh shared that the government has earned approx Rs 4100 crore in the last five years from disposal of scrap including electronic items from various Central Government offices under its cleanliness drive.

Union Minister of State for Personnel Singh said that at the end of Special Cleanliness Campaign 4.0 last year, approximately From which Rs 3300 crore was earned This year Rs 788.53 crore was added through Special Campaign 5.0 running from October 2 to October 31, 2025. As a result, the total amount earned so far has been exhausted. 4088.53 crores.

“Total Revenue “Through disposal of scrap, including electronic scrap, from various central government offices as part of the special cleanliness drive, Rs 4088.53 crore has been earned through five dedicated annual cleanliness drives running each month from 2021,” he said.

The minister reminded that during his first Independence Day address, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had called for the cleanliness initiative from the ramparts of the Red Fort. He said this appeal sparked a mass movement, resulting in the construction of more than four lakh toilets in the first year alone.

Singh mentioned that a drive was launched to remove unnecessary office files, broken furniture and other junk from government offices.

Providing a timeline, the minister said that each year, new dimensions were added to the campaign. In 2021, following the advice of the Prime Minister, it was decided that the cleanliness movement would continue, with a dedicated special cleanliness drive from 2 October (Gandhi Jayanti) to 31 October, in which all government ministries and departments were expected to participate and regularly report on their progress.

Singh said, for the last three years, apart from the conventional scrap, there was also a lot of electronic scrap in the offices which could be disposed of not only to generate revenue for the state but also through recycling to generate wealth from the waste.

Another important outcome of the campaign is that 231.75 lakh square feet of space was cleared for productive use, which was earlier occupied by waste material, worn-out furniture and scrap.

Singh said that the total revenue is more than The Rs 4,088 crore earned from selling scrap can meet the budget of a major space mission or multiple Chandrayaan missions. The total area freed up is sufficient to accommodate a large mall or other important structures for economic activity.

This year’s special cleanliness drive 5.0 also comes at a time when a massive “waste to wealth” activity has been launched by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Singh said.

For example, these include recycling of hospital waste through technology developed by CSIR-NIIST Thiruvananthapuram and deployed at AIIMS New Delhi, recycling of cooked oil done by CSIR-IIP Dehradun and use of steel sludge for road construction through technology developed by CSIR-CRRI New Delhi.