In his address at the  National Workshop on Capacity Building of Urban Local Bodies,the Minister said that there was a time when India used to be categorised as a ‘reluctant urbaniser’. Urban Development had faced neglect as only Rs. 1.78 lakh crores were invested in urban areas between 2004 to 2014, .

The workshop marked the launch of three key initiatives, i.e., ‘Annual Capacity Building Plan (ACBP) for MoHUA’, Annual Capacity Building Plans for 6 pilot ULBs (Ahmedabad, Bhubaneswar, Mysuru, Rajkot, Nagpur, and Pune) and ‘a Comprehensive Toolkit for preparing the Capacity Building Plans for ULBs.’ Besides Shri Hardeep S. Puri, Union Minister of Housing & Urban Affairs and Petroleum & Natural Gas, Shri Tarun Kapoor, Advisor to Prime Minister,  Shri Manoj Joshi, Secretary, MoHUA also graced the occasion and stressed the importance of elevating the quality and capacity of ULBs.

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“Ek Tareekh Ek Ghanta Ek Saath” is specifically about hard core cleanliness activities – shramdaan for swachhata. This is not about pledges, plog runs, rangoli competitions, wall paintings, nukkad nataks. Shramdaan is only for cleanliness drives across the nation”, emphasised Shri Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of Housing & Urban Affairs and Petroleum & Natural Gas. This mega cleanliness drive calls upon citizens from all walks of life to join in actual cleaning activities at public places like market spaces, railway tracks, water bodies, tourist locations, places of worship etc. resulting in visible cleanliness.

While interacting with media on ‘Swachhata Hi Seva’ today, he said that over 6.4 lakh sites have been adopted for shramdaan from urban & rural India.

The mega cleanliness drive aims to clean Garbage Vulnerable Points, railway tracks and stations, airports and surrounding areas, roadsides – Stretches of National & State Highways, water bodies, ghats, slums, under bridges, market spaces, backlanes, places of worship, tourist spots, bus stands/toll plazas, zoos and wildlife areas, gaushalas, hills, beaches, ports, residential areas, anganwadis, schools/colleges etc.

The Minister informed the media that a large number of Resident Welfare Associations have come forward to volunteer for shramdaan in nearly 1 lakh residential areas while village communities have come forward to adopt around 35,000 anganwadi centres all over the nation. NGOs, market associations, SHGs, faith groups, trade bodies, private sector etc have come forward to do shramdaan in 22,000 market areas, 10,000 water bodies, nearly 7,000 bus stands/toll plazas, nearly 1000 gaushalas, nearly 300 zoos & wildlife areas and various locations that will have mega cleanliness drives in rural and urban India.

The theme of Swachhata Pakhwada 2023 is Garbage Free India. Various activities have been conducted by all villages and towns, schools, anganwadis, health centres, railways stations, airports etc. focusing on awareness generation and improved cleanliness. During the fortnight of activities, over 31 crore people have already participated in plog runs, cleanliness drives, awareness programs etc.

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