Highlights
- Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath led a cleanliness drive outside Taj Mahal
- The visit was scheduled to push the Swachh agenda in Agra
- The CM is also expected to inspect areas inside and outside of the monument
Donning a mask and wielding a broom, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath swept an area outside the Taj Mahal on Thursday in a bid to give a push to Swachh agenda in Agra. Some 14,000 policemen and dozens of officials joined the Chief Minister in the launch of this mega cleanliness drive in Agra, the city that fared badly in the recently held Swachh Survekshan with a rank of 263. This is despite Agra being nominated by the government under its Swachh Iconic Places (SIPs) initiative to raise the cleanliness levels and bring it at par with international standards.
The Chief Minister will also be inspecting various places along the way, inside and outside the monument and is also expected to inaugurate various development projects in Agra.
आज ताज महल पश्चिमी गेट पर स्वच्छता अभियान कार्यक्रम में हिस्सा लिया। pic.twitter.com/MsOBUtaRj1
— Yogi Adityanath (@myogiadityanath) October 26, 2017
This is not the first time when Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has decided to join a cleanliness drive, earlier this year, after the Swachh Survekshan 2017, when 25 cities of Uttar Pradesh performed miserably, the Chief Minister headed to a congested pocket of Lucknow and swept the streets along with his ministers to kickstart a cleanup Uttar Pradesh mission.
We will ensure that cleanliness is maintained across the state. We will also focus on making Uttar Pradesh open defecation free. We are confident that we will be able to achieve that in the next few years,” the Chief Minister added in an earlier statement.
Uttar Pradesh has set a deadline of October 2018 to become open defecation free (ODF). To meet this target, the state requires 1.5 crore toilets by October next year. At the launch of the Swachhata Hi Seva campaign on September 15 this year, the Chief Minister had stated that 15,000 toilets were being constructed in Uttar Pradesh daily. The state also topped the campaign with 3.52 lakh toilets constructed between September 15 and October 2.
