Maharashtra all set with rolled up sleeves for Maha Swachhata Abhiyan
January 11, Pune: Regional Outreach Bureau, launched Maha Swachhta Abhiyan, a unique and one of its kind campaign which aims to reach One crore citizens in spreading the message of Swachh Bharat. The campaign will take place for 2 days from today. The drive will begin today, with simultaneous participation of 2,900 schools spread across 29 select urban centres of Maharashtra.
Maha Swachhta Abhiyan is being organised in collaboration with Department of Education, Government of Maharashtra. In a press conference yesterday, Santosh Ajmera, Director (Addl charge) ROB elaborated on the key features of the programme. “Two hundred students from each school are expected to participate in the events related”, he said while explaining the structure of the campaign.
On 11th January, there will be a drawing competition on the theme of Swachh Bharat in all participating schools and the selected drawings will be displayed at the National Level exhibition in Pune on a later date.
On 12th January there will be a group Swachhta drive by students in their respective school/ college areas, followed by a group Swachhta Pledge.
The students are then expected to participate in Swachhta awareness rallies, taking the message of Swachhta Abhiyan to the wider public. Participation of five lakh students is anticipated in this mission. “These students would then act as Swachhta Ambassadors reaching out to minimum twenty shopkeepers or retail vendors each, encouraging them to take Swachhta pledge; in turn enabling 1 Crore citizen Participation in the Abhiyan”, Ajmera informed, explaining the goals of the mission.
This initiative is directed under “Swachh Bharat Mission” started by honourable Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Swachh Bharat Mission is a nation-wide campaign in India for the period 2014 to 2019 that aims to clean up the streets, roads and infrastructure of India's cities, towns, and rural areas.
The mission has two thrusts that are, Swachh Bharat Mission Rural which operates under the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation and Swachh Bharat Mission Urban which operates under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. Together, the aim is to achieve Swachh Bharat by 2019, as a fitting tribute to Mahatma Gandhi on his 150th Birth Anniversary.