31 December,2023 11:27 AM IST | Mumbai | mid-day online correspondent
CM Shinde during launch of cleanliness drive/ CMO
Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, on Sunday, launched the 'Maha Swachhata Abhiyan' at Gateway of India in Mumbai. Deputy Chief Ministers Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar are involved in this effort, as are other notable people such as Mumbai City District Guardian Minister Deepak Kesarkar, Mumbai Suburban District Guardian Minister Mangal Prabhat Lodha, and Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal, added the ANI report.
According to the report, Chief Minister Shinde paid his homage to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj's statue and flower tributes to Swami Vivekananda's statue during the launch.
The Swachh Bharat Mission attempts to clean cities, towns, and rural areas' streets, roads, and public places. Its objectives include eliminating open defecation by constructing family and communal toilets and establishing a toilet usage monitoring system, the report added.
This is the nation's largest cleanliness programme, launched on October 2, 2014, by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, involving three million government employees and students across 4,041 cities, towns, and rural areas, the report added.
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According to the report, the Prime Minister has dubbed the campaign 'Satyagraha se Swachhagraha' a reference to Mahatma Gandhi's Champaran Satyagraha in 1917.
The Swachh Bharat Mission is divided into two parts: one for rural areas, under the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, and one for urban areas, under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, the ANI report further stated.
The Union government authorised Phase-II of SBM-G in February 2020, with a budget of Rs. 1,40,881 crores, emphasising sustainability and expanding coverage for Solid and Liquid Waste Management in villages, with the goal of achieving ODF Plus status for villages by 2024-25, the report added.
CMO, in a social media post, stated, "Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and BMC launched the 'Deep Cleaning Drive' on December 30. The entire cleanliness drive was started in the presence of the Chief Minister. Under the ongoing Deep Cleaning Drive in Mumbai, 1300 tons of debris and 183 tons of garbage were collected in four cleaning drives from December 1 to 30."
It further read, "About 22,277 kilometres of roads have been cleaned. As many as 5 thousand 245 manpower are working simultaneously at different places for complete cleanliness. As many as 508 vehicles like JCBs, Dumpers, Compactors, Garbage Collectors, Water Tankers and Firex Machines, Misting Machines and other updated systems are also available."
