‘Gandagi Mukt Bharat’ campaign: Bihar Govt starts awareness drive

Issuing a notification the state government asked officials to start an awareness campaign to discourage open defecation and inform the public on the importance of social distancing, swearing masks among others.

A day after ‘Gandagi Mukt Bharat’ campaign was launched by the Centre, Bihar Government on Sunday started an awareness campaign to inform the people of the state on the importance of cleanliness.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched ‘Gandagi Mukt Bharat’, a week-long campaign for swachhata (cleanliness) in the run-up to Independence Day. (PTI photo)

Issuing a notification the state government asked officials to start an awareness campaign to discourage open defecation and inform the public on the importance of social distancing, swearing masks among others.

“Cleanliness drives should be organised across the state on the lines of the Centre’s the ‘Gandagi Mukt Bharat’ campaign. People should be made aware of open defecation. They should also be made aware of the proper use of water, the importance of wearing mask, keeping two feet distance for social distancing, among others,” it said.

Asking the authorities to take steps to control the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, it added, “ Apart from these, proper sanitization should be done to control Covid-19 cases, bleaching powder should be spread, along with fogging.”

Under this initiative, there will be special cleanliness drives in urban and rural areas of the country, till August 15.

“Imagine what would have happened had pandemic like coronavirus broken out before 2014. Could we have imposed lockdown when over 60 per cent population was forced for open defecation? Swachhagraha has empowered us in the fight against Covid-19. This is a journey that will continuously go on. We have to move to ODF+ from ODF now. We have to devise ways of converting dirt into gold,” the PM had said during the launch.