Swachh outreach will start from Jama Masjid

NEW DELHI: The NDA government has planned a massive publicity outreach programme to mark the second anniversary of its flagship programme, the Swachh Bharat Mission,

NEW DELHI: The NDA government has planned a massive publicity outreach programme to mark the second anniversary of its flagship programme, the Swachh Bharat Mission, on October 2.

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In Delhi, the government will organise community-led mass cleaning campaigns in Jama Masjid and other urban areas. Actor Amitabh Bachchan will join in from Mumbai, with a cleanliness message.

Other celebrities will be roped in to join the cleanliness drive, in 10 iconic places.

As a prelude, a slew of programmes have been planned across the country from September 25, the birth anniversary of BJP ideologue Deendayal Upadhyay.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate and address the first India Sanitation conference in Vigyan Bhawan on September 30. It will be attended by chief ministers and ministers in charge of sanitation and urban development from various states, to highlight the progress made during the two years of the signature campaign.

The PM will give away awards to the best performing states in 11 different categories, for ensuring cleanliness.

A ‘chai pe charcha’ on sanitation is also being organised in gram panchayats and urban local bodies. This will be followed by ratri choupal (night meetings) in villages.

The urban leg of the Swachh Bharat Mission is being implemented by the urban development ministry. It proposes to provide individual as well as public toilets and solid-waste management facilities across 4,041 statutory towns and cities in India.

In rural areas, the programme is being implemented by the ministry of drinking water and sanitation.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Rs 1.96-lakhcrore mission on October 2, 2014 to clean up public places and make India free from open defecation by 2019.

Two years down the line, experts say the results are not very impressive, with open garbage dumps, overflowing drains and open defecation continuing to be a common sight in both villages and cities.

Recently, the National Sample Survey Organization revealed that 44% of the villages it surveyed did not have drainage infrastructure in place, while in 63% wards houses lacked liquid-waste disposal system for toilets.

Of the 1.09 crore toilets built in first 11 months of 2015-16, 52% people in rural areas and 7.55% in urban areas are not using them, the survey found.