Modi launches ‘cleanliness is service’ movement

NEW CAMPAIGN: The movement aims at boosting public’s role in cleanliness drive

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday launched “Swachhata Hi Seva” (cleanliness is service) movement by interacting with common people and personalities from diverse fields through video conferencing at 17 locations and said the country has achieved more in sanitation coverage in the last four years than that in the last 60-65 years.

The interaction, stretching about two hours, included with industrialist Ratan Tata, actor Amitabh Bachchan, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, and spiritual leaders Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, Maa Amritanandamayee, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and Dadi Janki, besides devotees from Ajmer Sharif dargah and Patna Sahib Gurudwara.

Modi performed “shramdaan” (manual labour) at Babasaheb Ambedkar Higher Secondary School in Delhi after his video interaction. An official release said the prime minister drove to the school and back in normal traffic without customary protocol and no special traffic arrangements were made for his visit.

The Swachhata Hi Seva movement aims at boosting public participation in the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan and is being organised in the run-up to the fourth anniversary of the Swachh Bharat Mission on October 2 next month, which will also mark the commencement of the 150th birth anniversary celebrations of Mahatma Gandhi.

In his remarks during video conferencing, Modi said cleanliness coverage was 40 per cent in 2014 and it now has grown to over 90 per cent on account of people’s efforts.

“Who could have thought that we will progress so much in cleanliness coverage in the last four years that could not be achieved in the last 60-65 years. Could anybody have thought that nine crore toilets will be built in the country in four years? Had anybody imagined that about 4.5 lakh villages, over 450 districts and 20 states and Union Territories will become open-defecation-free (ODF) in four years?” he said.

Modi said the day marks a new resolve, new enthusiasm and a new dream. “Today 1.25 crore citizens are going to repeat the pledge of cleanliness is service. From today till October 2, we all will contribute with

Who could have thought that we will progress so much in cleanliness coverage in the last four years that could not be achieved in the last 60-65 years

new energy and enthusiasm to make the country clean,” he said.

“We can say with pride that every section, every community, every caste, people of every age are taking this big campaign forward. Whether it is village, city, street or a corner, no part of the country is untouched by the campaign,” he added.

The prime minister interacted with schoolchildren from Dibrugarh in Assam, members of milk and agriculture cooperatives assembled in Mehsana, personnel of ITBP from the high-altitude Pangong Lake in Ladakh, women swachhagrahis from Dantewada in Chhattisgarh and Salem in Tamil Nadu, citizens from Rajgarh in Madhya Pradesh and Fatehpur in Uttar Pradesh, volunteers engaged in cleaning the Ganga from Bijnor in Uttar Pradesh and railway employees from Rewari in Haryana.

Yogi Adityanath, who was in Fatehpur in Uttar Pradesh, said during the video interaction that the state would become ODF by October 2, 2019, and his government had constructed over 1.36 crore toilets in the last 17 months.

Amitabh Bachchan said he found TV to be an “effective way to spread the message of cleanliness”.

NARENDRA MODI Prime Minister