The biggest gains have been reported by the health department. Following the clean-up, hospitals, health centres and clinics across the state have freed up space equivalent to 1,800 rooms. The area is large enough to accommodate 18 new hospitals, each with 100 rooms.
The scale of the discarded material has also highlighted years of neglect in maintaining government premises. More than 600,000 items were removed from healthcare facilities alone. These included broken tiles, glass, taps, commodes, pipelines, loose wires, faulty switches, tube lights, fans, air conditioners, furniture, computers and printers.
Among the largest categories of discarded material were nearly 500,000 unusable linen items, including old bedsheets, pillows and mattresses. The clean-up also removed 10,000 faulty medical devices, 20,000 non-functional bulbs and tube lights, and 17,266 fire extinguishers that were no longer operational.
The campaign also identified and cleared 807 ambulances and other government vehicles that were lying unused or in a broken condition on healthcare premises.
Gujarat Minister of State for Health Praful Pansheriya welcomed the results of the cleanliness drive. He said government hospitals and health centres had become as clean as private hospitals following the exercise. He also assured that the same standards of cleanliness would be maintained in the future.
The drive extended beyond the health department, with other government departments also removing substantial quantities of broken furniture and old files from their premises. In a separate but related measure, the state government disposed of 5,486 government vehicles that were more than 15 years old.
Among the locations cited for the disposal of old vehicles, Gandhinagar recorded the highest number, with 4,026 vehicles removed. Surat followed with 1,715 vehicles, while Rajkot accounted for 1,346 and Ahmedabad for 935. However, the figures reported for these four cities add up to more than the stated statewide total of 5,486 vehicles, leaving a discrepancy that requires reconciliation.
The statewide exercise has freed up space across government facilities, removed unusable equipment and vehicles, and enabled the disposal of accumulated scrap. The figures also underline the scale of the clean-up and the need to reconcile the reported vehicle disposal totals.
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