New Delhi: Actor and NDTV-Dettol Banega Swachh India campaign ambassador, Amitabh Bachchan lauded the role of the annual 12-hour Cleanathon held on October 2, as part of the campaign, for its role in spreading awareness about the Swachh India movement. Mr Bachchan was among those who interacted with Prime Minister Narendra Modi via video conferencing during the launch of Swachhata Hi Seva movement.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the 15-day cleanliness drive by interacting with students, celebrities and Swachhagrahis from across India. Actor Amitabh Bachchan who has been an active part of the Swachh Bharat Mission since its launch in 2014 by PM Modi, said that he has been a part of the cleanliness movement as a citizen of India. The actor, who has been a part of multiple promotions on the Swachh Bharat Mission, said that merely promoting the movement is not enough, as individual’s contribution is what mattered more.
Talking about the Versova beach clean-up movement in Mumbai, spearheaded by environmentalist Afroz Shah, Mr Bachchan said that before the launch of the clean-up campaign, the beach was filled with garbage. All that was disposed in the sea was being carried back to the beach. The actor said that he visited Versova beach and took part in the cleaning up activities. He mentioned how the garbage in the beach was buried under sand and volunteers struggled to dig out the garbage barehanded, till he gifted an excavator machine and a tractor to Afroz Shah and his team, to help them in their clean-up efforts.
Mr Bachchan also heaped high praise on NDTV at the launch of PM Modi’s Swachhata Hi Seva movement. Talking about the 12-hour telethon organised by NDTV every year on October 2, Mr Bachchan said that the programme helped in highlighting the cause at a national level, with Chief Ministers of states being a part of the telethon to discuss cleanliness initiatives. The actor mentioned how the launch of the Swachh Express in the first year of the campaign covered 400 villages to spread awareness about the importance of sanitation. This was followed by the introduction of Swachhta ki Pathshala where school students were taught about hygiene. Subsequently, the #Mere10Guz initiative as part of the Cleanathon, which promoted the concept of how if each individual ensured that 10 yards of their surroundings is clean then India could become clean, was also mentioned by Mr Bachchan.
The actor also talked about his interaction with Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, and how both participated in a cleanliness drive in a hospital during Maha Cleanathon, and his visit to a co-operative housing society in Mumbai which had taken up composting of waste within their premises.
Thanking the PM Modi during the launch of the Swachhata Hi Seva movement, Amitabh Bachchan said that he hoped to continue work for the Swachh Bharat Mission and contribute towards cleanliness in the country.
NDTV – Dettol Banega Swachh India campaign lends support to the Government of India’s Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM). Helmed by Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan, the campaign aims to spread awareness about hygiene and sanitation, the importance of building toilets and making India open defecation free (ODF) by October 2019, a target set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, when he launched Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in 2014. Over the years, the campaign has widened its scope to cover issues like air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and menstrual hygiene. The campaign has also focused extensively on marine pollution, clean Ganga Project and rejuvenation of Yamuna, two of India’s major river bodies.
Abhay
September 15, 2018 at 2:52 pm
Burnol moment for pm ?
Chlokes
September 16, 2018 at 1:39 am
Please try to make the language ‘स्वच्छ ‘ first.
‘Swachhata’ is ‘स्वछता’.
‘Swachchhata’ is ‘स्वच्छता’.
#SwachhataHiSeva #SHS18
Gopal
September 18, 2018 at 7:46 am
Dear all,
Great efforts are being taken to make India”Swatch Bharat”. With all due respects to the people involved it is my considered opinion that without compulsion and punitive measures for littering and polluting achievement in the effort may not be something you can write home about. If you could penalize for traffic violation ,why not for making environment unclean. Whenever I go abroad I envy them. How did they achieve it. Intoducing penalty will eventually inculcate the culture of cleanliness. Young student volunteers with government badges must be authorized to bring offenders to book. This must become a pan India movement.This will also drive home at student level the importance of cleanliness
P K Kaushal
October 2, 2018 at 11:45 pm
The all round awareness for Swatch Bharat generated by vison of our PM is commendable. Many eminent personalities like Amitabh Bachchan are contributing prominently in this great cause
However the civic bodies and municipal committees/corporations must be made to play greater role. All efforts are required to enforce waste segregation at source, collection by civic bodies and treatment at decentralised places. These places may be created in the neighbourhood parks or common places.
I would like to suggest following measures
1 Civic bodies may make it compulsory for every household to segregate wet and dry waste. Private NGOs or stakeholders may be roped in to organise workshops at mohalla levels. Each society/mohalla
2 Wet waste may be collected by agencies who may engage rag pickers or safai karamcharis. The collected waste may be shifted by preferably non motorised transport to newly created waste treatment/management small units.
3 Sufficient knowhow is available to convert the wet waste to useful methane gas which can be supplied in the neighbourhood household or restaurants’/hotels for cooking and very useful compost as by product. The plants can be installed in very small areas of varying sizes depending on per day quantity of waste to be treated. Plant no. of shady trees to neutralise foul smell if any
4 Dry waste can be recycled
5 Municipal employees may be assigned with tasks in for specified areas and responsivity must be fixed for implementation. Responsibility must end only at CEO level
6 Such arrangement may be implemented in a pre determined timeframe
Benefits envisaged
a) Cherished achievement of clean environment
b) Generation of huge employment for waste plant manufacturers, suppliers, planners, installers, operation and maintenance personnel and rag pickers
c) Generate revenue for civil bodies
d) Save cost of transportation of waste to the dump yards
e) Generation of organic fertiliser for plantation
EACH CITIZEN HAS TO BE MADE TO UNDERSTAND HIS/HER RESPONSIBILITY TO MANAGE WASTE GENERATED BY THEM OR FACE PENALITIES. THIS IS FOLLWED IN ALMOST ALL RESPONSIBLE COUNTRIES