Lucknow, Sep 28 (IANS): The Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government has won eight awards in the Garib Kalyan Rozgar Abhiyan (GKRA) launched by the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation under the Union Ministry of Jal Shakti.

Uttar Pradesh has bagged the overall first position while in individual districts, Prayagraj, Hardoi and Fatehpur has bagged first, second and third ranks, respectively.

According to the government spokesman, in the non-GKRA category, Bareilly and Aligarh have secured first and second position, respectively. Aligarh has also received a special recognition award.

Besides, Uttar Pradesh has also got the overall second rank in implementation of the 'Gandagi Mukt Bharat' scheme.

The awards will be distributed at a virtual ceremony by the Jal Shakti Minister on October 2.

It may be recalled that the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation (DDWS) had launched three campaigns in the last one year -- a six-month-long campaig, Swachh Sundar Samudayik Shauchalaya (SSSS) from Nov 1, 2019 to April 30, 2020; and a three-month-long campaign, Samudayik Shauchalaya Abhiyan (SSA) from June 15, 2020 to September 15, 2020 -- to mobilise districts and villages to construct and maintain their community toilets.

'Gandagi Mukt Bharat' was a week-long campaign from August 8 to August 15, 2020 to free India of garbage and waste.

The government of India had also launched the Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyan initiative to tackle the impact of Covid-19 on labourers/workers. It is a rural public works scheme which was launched on June 20 with an initial funding of Rs 50,000 crore.