On account of birth anniversary of Father of Nation Mahatma Gandhi, ‘Swachhta Aastha Diwas’ will be celebrated in all the villages of Chhattisgarh with special gram sabhas to be organised on Friday, October 2, an official press statement informed.
In these Gram Sabhas, Sarpanchs will read out ‘Swachhta Sandesh’ of Chief Minister Raman Singh. The state government will also hold lok Nayak Jaiprakash Narayan’s birth anniversary as ‘Swachhta Kranti Diwas’ and birth anniversary of Iron Man Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel will be celebrated as ‘Shakti Diwas’.
In all these programmes, people will take pledge of making their village open-defecation free. In the same sequence, Chief Minister Singh has released an appeal for all the residents of rural areas, under Clean India Mission (Rural), stating that we all will have to join hands and make collective efforts to build a healthy Chhattisgarh and thereby achieve the goal of ‘Clean India’.
Chief Minister’s message of cleanliness (Swachhta Sandesh) has already been issued to District Collectors and CEOs of District Panchayats by State Clean India Mission (Rural) under Panchayat and Rural Development Department.
Raman Singh has heartily congratulated people of state on completion of Clean India Campaign’s one year on October 2 i.e. birth anniversary of Father of Nation Mahatma Gandhi. Singh stated that under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a campaign has been launched to create new identity of the country as ‘Clean India’ by October 2, 2019 with public participation. Singh stated in his appeal to public that people of rural areas should actively participate in gram sabha of respective villages and take pledge of making their village open-defecation free. He also appealed people to observe this memorable day as ‘Swachhta Aastha Diwas’.
He requested people to celebrate birth anniversary of great thinker and lok Nayak late Jai Prakash Narayan on October 11 as ‘Swachhta Kranti Diwas’. Besides, birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel on October 31 should be observed as ‘Shakti Diwas’. On this day, open-defecation villages will be felicitated.
Chief Minister stated in his appeal that this mission was launched by Prime Minister on October 2, 2014, with the objective of making rural areas open-defecation free and maintaining clean surroundings there.
By participating in this mission and achieving the goal of making all the villages clean and open-defecation free by October 2, 2019, we can pay a true tribute to Father of Nation Mahatma Gandhi on his 150th birth anniversary. Nearly eight per cent diseases in rural areas are spread due to unclean surroundings. This is the reason why they suffer so much of ailments and financial burden. It is necessary to end the practice of open-defecation for controlling spread of water-borne diseases.
Diseases like diarrhoea can also be prevented by adopting hygiene habits like hand wash before eating, and after using toilet. Singh further said that other than open-defecation, the other majorproblem in villages is lack of proper disposal of garbage. Thereafore, to create mass awareness about importance of cleanliness, National Cleanliness Campaign is being conducted in all the district of Chhattisgarh from September 25, which will go on till October 31, he said.