Maharishi Valmiki Sampoorn Swachata Puraskar (MVSSP)

What is Maharishi Valmiki Sampoorn Swachata Puraskar?

Maharishi Valmiki Sampoorn Swachata Puraskar (MVSSP) is an annual rural cleanliness competition run by the Rural Development Department, Government of Himachal Pradesh, under Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin). The scheme identifies and rewards the cleanest Gram Panchayat at four levels: block, district, division and state, and pays a cash prize at each level. The name is also transliterated as Maharishi Valmiki Sampoorna Swachhta Puruskar.

Maharishi Valmiki Sampoorn Swachata Puraskar sits inside a wider state strategy on rural sanitation. The department's stated aim is to push rural communities to abandon open defecation and adopt safe sanitation permanently, and the puraskar is the incentive arm of that effort. Rather than inspecting panchayats on paper, the scheme makes them compete: panchayats enter voluntarily, committees visit and mark them against fixed criteria, and the best performers are named publicly and paid.

The competition looks at three things in practice; waste management, sanitation infrastructure and active community participation. A panchayat that has built toilets but does not maintain them, or that has no arrangement for solid and liquid waste, will not score at the top of its block.

Winners at state and division level are honoured by the Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh during the Independence Day celebrations each year. District and block winners are given their prizes by senior dignitaries at the respective level.

Who is eligible for Maharishi Valmiki Sampoorn Swachata Puraskar?

Gram Panchayats that can enter:

• Any Gram Panchayat in Himachal Pradesh that has been declared Open Defecation Free (ODF). This is the single hard condition. ODF status means the community in the panchayat has stopped open defecation and every household has adequate toilet access.
• A panchayat that has previously won at a lower level may enter at a higher level. Winning the block prize is a step towards the district, division and state prizes, not a bar to them.

Who cannot apply, or is not eligible:

• Gram Panchayats that are not open defecation free cannot apply. The department treats ODF certification as a precondition, not as one of the scoring parameters.
• A panchayat that has won at a particular level is not eligible to compete at that same level for the next three years. If a panchayat wins the block prize in one year, it cannot re-enter for the block prize for the following three years.
• The state-level winner is not eligible to compete in MVSSP at all for three years after the year of winning. This is deliberately stricter than the same-level bar and exists so that other panchayats get a turn at the top award.
• Individuals cannot apply. The award belongs to the Gram Panchayat as a body. There is no personal benefit, no beneficiary list and no individual form.
• Urban local bodies are not eligible. Municipal Corporations, Municipal Councils and Nagar Panchayats in Himachal Pradesh compete in the separate Atal Shresth Shahar Yojna run by the Urban Development Department.

How much money does MVSSP pay?

The prizes stack upward rather than sideways: a panchayat wins its block first, then goes forward to the district, divisional and state rounds in the same progression the assessment committees follow.

How to apply for Maharishi Valmiki Sampoorn Swachata Puraskar

1. Pass a Gram Panchayat resolution recording the panchayat's intention to participate in the MVSSP competition for that year.
2. Fill the prescribed MVSSP application form supplied through the block office, covering the panchayat's sanitation position, waste management arrangements and community participation.
3. Get the form attested by the Gram Panchayat head and three other members of the panchayat.
4. Submit the form to the Block Development Officer (BDO) by 23 April of that year. This is the operative deadline for the whole competition.
5. Wait for BDO scrutiny. The Block Development Officer checks the received applications for completeness and eligibility, chiefly the ODF condition and the three-year bar on repeat winners at the same level.
6. The BDO refers eligible applications to the District Rural Development Agency (DRDA) for further processing.
7. Host the assessment committee visit. Committees at block, district, division and state level evaluate the eligible panchayats against the prescribed norms and marking criteria and pick the best at each level.

There is no online application route published for MVSSP. The whole process runs offline through the block office, which is why the 23 April date and the attestation requirement matter so much, a form that arrives late or without the four signatures is simply not in the competition.

How are MVSSP winners selected?

Selection is done by assessment committees constituted separately at block, district, division and state level. According to the scheme's published material, these committees are deliberately mixed rather than purely official. They draw members from:

• the Panchayat Samiti,
• non-governmental organisations working locally,
• government officials from line departments,
• local press representatives, and
• other relevant stakeholders.

Each committee marks the panchayats in its jurisdiction against prescribed norms and marking criteria, then selects the cleanest. The progression runs upward: block first, then district, then division, then state. Because press representatives and NGO members sit on the committees, the assessment is effectively a public one, and panchayats that maintain visible community sanitation work tend to do better than those relying on records alone.

What documents does a Gram Panchayat need?

Why MVSSP entries get rejected

• No ODF status. A panchayat that has not been declared open defecation free is screened out at the BDO stage regardless of how clean it is otherwise.
• The three-year bar. A panchayat that won at that level within the last three years is not eligible to re-enter at the same level, and a past state winner is out of the competition entirely for three years.
• Missing the 23 April deadline at the Block Development Officer's office.
• Form not attested by four office bearers. The pradhan's signature alone is not enough — three other members must also attest.
• No participation resolution. The resolution is the first step in the prescribed process, and an application without it is incomplete.
• Sanitation work that cannot be shown on the ground. The committees visit; paper claims that the visit does not bear out cost marks.

Where to get help with MVSSP

• Block Development Officer of your block. The single most useful point of contact. The BDO issues the form, receives it, scrutinises it and refers it onward.
• District Rural Development Agency (DRDA) of your district, which processes applications referred by the BDO and hosts the district-level assessment.
• Rural Development Department, Government of Himachal Pradesh: rural.hp.gov.in, the department that runs the scheme under Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin).
• Panchayati Raj Department, Himachal Pradesh, panchayat.hp.gov.in, for panchayat-level circulars and guidelines.

Entering MVSSP costs a Gram Panchayat nothing beyond the effort of the resolution and the form. No fee is charged at any stage, and no agent or intermediary can put a panchayat's name into the competition; only the panchayat itself, through its Block Development Officer, can do that.