The goal of the mission is to provide every town, city or village with pucca toilets and safe drinking water for all, waste disposal systems and cleans roads & lanes by 2019, Mahatma Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary.
While delivering his first address from the podium of Red Fort on Independence Day, the Prime Minister had shared a dream of his with the fellow citizens – a dream of clean India.
“Cleanliness is Godliness” has been his belief. And Mahatma Gandhi has been his ideal.
Today, to commemorate the birth anniversary of our dear Bapu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched the “Swachh Bharat Abhiyan” or “Clean India Mission” fom the Valmiki Basti in New Delhi. A broom-yielding Modi was seen cleaning the road of the colony in the morning. He also interacted with the safai karmcharis who reside in the area.
Before that, the Prime Minister visited Raj Ghat and paid homage to Mahatma.
Gandhi ji’s thoughts & beliefs remain a great inspiration for us. Let us dedicate ourselves to building the India of Gandhi ji’s dreams.
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) October 2, 2014
PM #NarendraModi launches #SwachhBharatAbhiyan– an initiative to clean India pic.twitter.com/crsrOH5jvq
— All India Radio News (@airnewsalerts) October 2, 2014
The Prime Minister spent some time at ‘Bapu Niwas’, the one-room quarter in the temple premises where Gandhi stayed for 214 days – between April 1946 and September 1947. A spinning wheel and a writing desk are preserved here as Gandhi memorabilia.
At least 31 Lakh central employees have taken part in the campaign and all of the union minister have done their bits by wielding brooms either at offices, or residence or have travelled to different cities to spread the word and mission.
The goal of the mission is to provide every town, city or village with pucca toilets and safe drinking water for all, waste disposal systems and cleans roads & lanes by 2019, Mahatma Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary.
As Times of India reports, “construction of household toilets has been identified as one of the major focus area since 53% households in the country don’t have toilet facilities, according to 2011 Census. The situation is far worse in rural areas where 69.3% rural homes have no such facility. Over 78% of rural households in states like Jharkhand, Bihar, Rajasthan, Odisha and Chhattisgarh don’t have toilets.”
The estimated cost of the mission is Rs 1.96 Lakh crore.
A short video of the event has been released:
Swachh Bharat Mission is being launched. Join LIVE. https://t.co/kt8F9WKw2p #MyCleanIndia
— PMO India (@PMOIndia) October 2, 2014
