If Northeast Is Unclean Then The Whole Country’s Development Will Suffer: Prime Minister Narendra Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi while addressing the centenary celebrations of the prominent voluntary organization, Bharat Sevashram Sangha on Sunday urged the people of Northeast to make cleanliness an integral part of their spiritual practice and said that the government aims to make northeast India a gateway to Southeast Asia and is making huge investments for the overall development of the region, but lack of cleanliness can hamper government’s big dream.

If this beautiful Gateway (Northeast) of Southeast Asia is unclean, unhygienic and unhealthy, then our whole country will be lagging behind crossing the gateway of development, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi while expressing disappointment about Northeast’s performance in the recently held Swachh Survekshan 2017 rankings which was conducted in 434 cities and towns across the country.

12 cities of Northeastern states were surveyed in the Swachh Survekshan 2017 to see the progress of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan campaign in each of the cities. But the situation is not very good. Only Gangtok has come at a rank of 50. The ranking of other 4 cities is between 100 and 200 and the rest 7 cities are in the range of 200 to 300, added PM Modi.

Also Read: Swachh Survekshan 2017: Here’s How India’s Cleanest City, Indore Is Adopting The ‘Clean, Segregate, Compost’ Mantra

Swachh Survekshan 2017: Northeast Cities Swachh Rankings

Gangtok is at rank 50 followed by Aizawl, Mizoram which is ranked at 105. Guwahati has been placed at 134th. Besides Guwahati, Assam’s other towns also ranked poorly, with Dibrugarh being the lowest at the 297th position. Nagaon is placed at 161st and Silchar at 280th.

Imphal, Manipur is at 122nd position and Nagaland’s two towns, Kohima and Dimapur, progressed poorly at 208th and 277th positions. Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh, too ranked poorly, it was at 216th position. Agartala, Tripura was at 290th place.

Shillong, Meghalaya where the conference was held is at 276 rank, PM Modi asked people of Shillong to divert their focus on cleanliness completely and asked them to make efforts to protect the environment and make the entire area plastic free.

Also Read: Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland’s Uphill Fight Against Open Defecation

The Need Of The Hour – To Take Swachhta Seriously

PM Modi also stressed on the fact that the situation is like a challenge for everyone, from state government to local bodies, everyone is doing their bit, but it is crucial that each and every citizen realises the need for cleanliness and swachhta, he added,

It is very important for each person to realise that he is a soldier of cleanliness mission in his own way. With the goal of every person, the goal of clean India, clean northeast can be achieved.

Observing that there is some buzz for Swachh Bharat Abhiyan among people, PM Modi said, “When Swachh Bharat campaign started back in 2014, you had selected five railway stations in the Northeast and took responsibility for cleaning those. Now your efforts need to be increased further.”