Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday announced that a massive waste management campaign will be launched in 4,000 cities across the country on June 5, the World Environment Day. Under the campaign, waste bins of blue and green colours would be distributed in these cities along with an awareness drive.
“I have a firm belief that we will develop a culture and the new steps that we take towards achieving cleanliness will continue. Only then we will achieve the dream of Gandhiji, achieve the kind of cleanliness that he had dreamt of,” Modi said in his monthly radio address ‘Mann Ki Baat’ .
The Central Government, in association with the State Governments and municipal representatives, will launch a “massive and important campaign of waste management” in 4,000 cities on the occasion of World Environment Day on June 5. “Two types of waste bins will be available — one of green colour and the other blue colour.... If we follow discipline, then the waste bins that are going to be placed in these 4,000 cities will collect dry garbage in blue waste bins and liquid garbage in green waste bins,” Modi said.
He explained what kind of waste should be put in green colour bins and what in blue colour bins. The Prime Minister, who has been driving the ‘Swachchh Bharat’ campaign for over two years, said that even if a single individual decides, a huge public campaign can be built.
In this context, he referred to one such cleanliness drive on the Versova beach in Mumbai. “You must have heard that the Versova beach in Mumbai, which was infamous for its filth, has now transformed into a clean and beautiful beach. People toiled for about 80-90 weeks, extracting thousands of tonnes of waste and today Versova beach is clean and beautiful,” he said. Modi said this mission was started by one Afroz Shah in October 2015 and gradually people joined it.
“For this outstanding work, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) awarded ‘Champion of the Earth’ Award to Sh. Afroz Shah, and thus he has become the first Indian to achieve this distinction,” said Modi.
Answering the critics of his ‘Mann Ki Baat’ radio broadcast, Prime Minister said he had not thought it would be viewed politically when he launched the programme more than two years back. He said through the programme, he had “become like a member of every household” of the country, conversing with “my family” about routine issues. He said that like “an ordinary citizen”, he too gets influenced by good or bad things.
“Some people take ‘Mann Ki Baat’ as a monologue and some criticise it from a political angle,” Modi said in his radio programme, the first after the completion of three years of his Government. “When I started ‘Mann Ki Baat’, I had not thought so,” he said about the programme launched on October 2, 2014. Through the programme, he said he felt like he was conversing with “my family while sitting at home”.
He added that there are many families who have written to him these very feelings.
Noting that Sunday was the birth anniversary of freedom fighter Veer Savarkar, the Prime Minister said, “Countless great men spent their youth in jails. Several youngsters went to the gallows.” He said the freedom fighters had suffered “despicable miseries and that is how we can now breathe in a free India.”
In this context, he referred to the cellular jail of Andaman and Nicobar Islands and said the younger generation should visit it to understand the trouble and torture the freedom fighters had to suffer to achieve freedom. “Once we go there, we realise why it was called ‘Kaala Paani’ (dark waters),” he said.
He said some opinion polls and surveys have appreciated his Government’s work, some have supported it while some others have highlighted the drawbacks. Appreciating this exercise being conducted over the last one month in the run-up to completion of his Government’s three years on May 26, he said he believes that in a democracy, the Government should be answerable.
“Constructive criticism strengthens the democracy. For a lively democracy, such exercises are immensely important,” said Prime Minister.
“Three years back, you (people) had given me the responsibility of the ‘pradhan sevak’ (prime servant). There have been several surveys and opinion polls. I consider this entire exercise healthy,” Modi said.
“I thank those who have given critical and important feedback.... I greatly value such exercises.... It provides an opportunity to correct the weaknesses and the drawbacks that may be there,” Modi said.