Instead of cutting cake and partying late into the night, Tamil matinee idol Kamal Haasan, celebrated his Shashtyabda Poorthy (60th birthday) on Friday by taking a broom and cleaning a water body in a Chennai suburb.
This act of social services was in response to the call by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 2 when he launched the Swachchh Bharat campaign from New Delhi. Modi had requested most of the celebrities including Kamal Haasan and Shashi Tharoor to join in the Swachchh Bharat mission for a clean India.
The actor drove down to Madambakkam, a sleepy town panchayath near Tambaram in Southern Chennnai with hundreds of fans and launched the programme to clean Madambakkam lake, which has become an open yard for dumping waste. The lake which once used to be a water body with lot of flora and fauna nearby has been filled with tonnes of non-degradable and polluting waste.
Speaking to reporters, the actor said his fans club, which has been renamed as Narpani Iyakkam (Welfare Association) has identified 25 locations across Tamil Nadu which would be cleaned in the next three months as part of the Swachchh Bharat campaign. “If the campaign catches up it is sure the country would be known for its good governance,” said Haasan. The Welfare Association has given preference to clean water bodies and lakes for cleaning and restoring.