On his 105th episode of Mann Ki Baat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday, appealed to people for 1 hour of shramdaan for the swachhata (cleanliness) at 10 am on October 1 calling the initiative- 'Ek tareekh ek ghanta ek saath'.
He said it would be a collective ‘swachhanjali’ (homage) to Bapu (Mahatma Gandhi) on the eve of his Jayanti.
Speaking on 'Swachhata Hi Sevaabhiyan', the PM urged, “A big event on cleanliness is going to be organized on October 1, i.e. Sunday at 10 am. You too should take out time and help in this campaign related to cleanliness. You can also join this cleanliness campaign in your street, or neighbourhood…or at a park, river, lake or any other public place.”
The mega cleanliness drive calls upon citizens from all walks of life to join in actual cleaning activities of public places like market spaces, railway tracks water bodies tourist locations, religious places etc. Every town, Gram Panchayat, all sectors of the government like civil aviation, railways, information & technology etc, and public institutions will be facilitating cleanliness events led by the citizens.
NGO/ RWA/ private organizations etc. interested in organizing cleaning events can also apply online on the portal to the ULB/ District Administration. The cleanliness events will be available for public information on a specially-architectured IT platform Swachhata Hi Seva – Citizens Portal swachhatahiseva.com. At the site of cleanliness, citizens can click pictures and upload on the portal too. The portal also hosts a section inviting citizens, and influencers to join the andolan and lead the people’s movement by becoming Swachhata Ambassadors.
The mega cleanliness drive is part of the SwachhataPakhwada- Swachhata Hi Seva2023, being observed from September 15 till October 2. Citizens are engaging in various cleanliness activities like the restoration of old buildings, cleaning of water bodies, ghats, painting walls, conducting nukkadnataks, rangoli competitions. Since the launch of the Pakhwada, over 5 crore citizens have joined the Pakhwada fortnight so far.
Nine years ago, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, gave a clarion call for swachhata in 2014. Citizens from all walks of life reciprocated with immense enthusiasm taking the ownership for Swachh Bharat. As a result, swachhata became a national behaviour Swachh Bharat Mission became a household name.
