Best Moments Of The 12-Hour Banega Swachh India Cleanathon

In his opening to Cleanathon 2017, Amitabh Bachchan quotes Prime Minister Modi to drive home the importance of every individual's role to clean up India, "this is mother earth. Do you ever want to spit on your mother?"

Highlighting the dangers of our indiscriminate actions like the rate at which we are generating plastic waste, Amitabh Bachchan said, "There's an irony, whatever we throw in oceans, the ocean throws it back to us. We need to be careful what we dispose in oceans."

Children with disability performed on the song Hum honge kaamyab (We shall overcome) at the Banega Swachh India 12-hour Cleanathon.

Celebrities, school students, volunteers and people across different walks of life joined clean up drives across India as part of the Cleanathon to celebrate Rashtirya Swachhta Diwas.

"Appeal to all public servants, get on the bike and start seeing the waste around",says Kiran Bedi, Lieutenant Governor, Puducherry

Singer Kailash Kher gave a soulful performance of Vande Mataram and urged people to understand the importance of #Mere10Guz and clean up their surroundings.

Chief Ministers of Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh declared the urban areas of their respective states Open Defecation Free (ODF) on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti.

Singer Shaan presented his rendition of the popular bhajan,Vaishnava Jana To on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti which was observed as Rashtriya Swachhta Diwas.

Actor John Abraham also joins the cleanathon and talks about how nuclear energy could be used to better the energy situation in the country as nuclear energy is a zero gas emission energy.

Speaking at the Banega Swachh India Cleanathon, actor, Anupam Kher stressed on spreading awareness at individual level. He said, 'people are becoming aware. Now if people litter from a car, passersby give dirty looks. The idea is to make people aware about the ill effects of open defecation. We have to do this at individual levels.'

"Only way we can hope to become a ?Swachh Bharat' is by proper waste management. Single use plastic should be banned to curb plastic menace in our country", says, actor, Dia Mirza.

Jaya Bachchan, Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha talks about manual scavenging."People have turned to be very insensitive towards the issues on manual scavenging. Contractors who employee these manual scavengers should be taken to court or fined. At a time when we talk about Bullet Trains, Mars Mission, we are unable to provide basic safety equipment to scavengers for cleaning sewers", she said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi appreciates the efforts of NDTV-Dettol Banega Swachh India Campaign with a tweet.

Actor, Alia Bhatt talks about awareness and the pivotal role it plays. She said,"awareness is the only way through which one realises what needs to be done to make India a clean country."

The 12-hour long NDTV-Dettol Banega Swachh India Cleanathon ended with national anthem being performed by children with disabilities. Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan and Alia Bhatt, joined the children to end the initiative on a patriotic note.