Swachchh Bharat, the nation wide cleanliness drive launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti on Thursday evoked a good response in the States of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh with a large number of people taking up the broom to sweep the public places.
In Hyderabad, State Governor ESl Narasimhan accompanied by his wife and many other officials visited the Raj Bhavan colony, the residential area of the employees and swept the roads.
Many Telangana Ministers also took part in the programme at their respective places. State Finance Minister E Rajinder participated in the cleanliness drive in his home town Karimnagar.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu along with many senior Ministers and officials launched the drive in Vijayawada. Accompanied by the Union Minster Nirmala Sitharaman, Naidu walked for two kilo meters from Prakashnagar and swept the roads. Sitharaman also took up the broom and cleaned the area.
lauding Narendra Modi for launching the unique programme to make the country clean, Naidu announced that his Government will devote two hours every week to this programme. “Everybody should participate in the programme to make the State and the country clean”, he said.
Naidu also garlanded the statue of Mahatma Gandhi on the occasion. He also recalled that today was the birth centenary of former PM lal Bahadur Shastri who had played a vital role in the freedom struggle and also gave the country the slogan of “Jai Jawan Jai Kisan”.
Naidu also marked the second anniversary of his Statewide padyatra, which he had launched this day two years ago. Recalling that how he had come across people suffering acute poverty and starvation during his padyatra Naidu said that his decision to increase the pension to the poor families to Rs1000 per month was born out of this experience. He launched NTR Bharosa scheme under which 43 lakh families will get a monthly pension of Rs1,000 direclty in to their banks. Nine lakh of the families will get pension from the centre, he said.
He also launched CM Dashboard website to ensure that the pension scheme was free of corruption and irregularities. Naidu also launched Janmabhoomi and NTR Sujala Srawanti scheme. Under the second scheme, twenty liter of drinking water will be provided for only Rs 2. Telangana BJP President G Kishan Reddy and senior party leader Bandaru Dattatreya also participated in the cleanliness drive at different places in Hyderabad.