NEW DELHI, Sep 29: More than 6.4 lakh sites have been adopted across the country as part of a nationwide cleanliness drive on October 1 responding to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s appeal for “one hour of shramdaan for swachhata”, Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri said today.
Addressing a press conference, Puri said the mega drive aims to clean garbage vulnerable points, railway tracks and stations, airports and surrounding areas, water bodies, ghats, slums, market spaces, places of worship and tourist spots among others.
In the recent episode of ‘Mann Ki Baat’, the prime minister appealed for “one hour of shramdaan for swachhata” at 10 am on October 1 by all citizens collectively, and said it will be a ‘swachhanjali’ to Mahatma Gandhi on the eve of his jayanti.
To facilitate the swachhata events, urban local bodies, towns, gram panchayats, different ministries have added events for “swachhata shramdaan” on the Swachhata Hi Seva citizens portal.
According to the Housing and Urban Affairs (HUA) Ministry, citizens can view the cleanliness events nearest to them on this specially-architectured IT platform and join to participate.
At various locations of cleanliness, citizens can click pictures during the “shramdaan” for swachhata and upload on the portal. The portal also hosts a section inviting citizens, influencers to join the andolan and lead the people’s movement by becoming “Swachhata Ambassadors”, it said.
Puri, the Union Housing and Urban Affairs minister, said a large number of resident welfare associations have come forward to volunteer for shramdaan in nearly one lakh residential areas while village communities have come forward to adopt around 35,000 anganwadi centres across the nation.
NGOs, market associations, Self Help Groups (SHGs), faith groups, trade bodies, private sector and others have come forward to do shramdaan in 22,000 market areas, 10,000 water bodies, nearly 7,000 bus stands/toll plazas, nearly 1,000 gaushalas, nearly 300 zoos and wildlife areas, and various locations that will have mega cleanliness drives in rural and urban India, he also said.
Adding further, Puri said that in a first of its kind, army, navy, air force will be coming together with civilians to clean up various garbage vulnerable places, railway tracks, heritage buildings, step-wells and forts.
The minister also said various associations have come forward to clean museums, monuments and forts across the nation.
The HUA ministry said among the states, Uttar Pradesh has adopted more than one lakh sites for cleanliness drives while Maharashtra will be conducting cleanliness drives in over 62,000 locations with citizens joining the shramdaan at beaches, religious places, schools, colleges and water bodies among others.
In Telangana, temples of historical significance across the state will also be cleaned during the drive.
“Madhya Pradesh is all set to spring in action on October 1 from nearly 57,000 locations, whereas Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat have planned shramdaan in nearly 40,000 & 35,000 locations, respectively.
“Union cabinet ministers, MPs, several chief ministers along with mayors, sarpanches and political leadership will join the citizen-led mega cleanliness drive too,” the ministry said in a statement.
It stated that in Delhi, under the NDMC, NGO Sri Sri Art of Living & Chintan will be joining the shramdaan for cleaning slums and other areas. More than 500 sites under the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) have also been adopted for cleanliness drives. (PTI)
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