The Union
Minister of Urban Development Shri M.Venkaiah Naidu inaugurated the 9th
foundation day of The Foundation for Restoration of National Values (FRNV) here
today. The event is co-sponsored by Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) and ‘Swachh
Bharat’ is the theme of the event.
Addressing
the gathering, Shri M.Venkaiah Naidu complimented FRNV for selecting Swachh
Bharat as the theme for its foundation day. He said that the lack of
cleanliness and unhygienic living conditions that we see in India today is a
reflection of rapidly declining values and fading culture. Mounds of garbage on
the road, littering in public places, destroying forests, clearly reflect that
there is complete lack of respect for others and basic human values, he added. The
Minister said that there is a need to radically change our perception of
‘waste’ as ‘assets’ or ‘resources’ rather than something to be discarded.
Shri Naidu said
that Swachh Bharat Mission, launched in October, 2014, is the biggest ever mass
mobilization undertaken, to make our country clean. He said that women are playing
a key role in this movement. He cited some instances like,
·
Sangita Ahwale of Saikheda
village in Washim district Maharashtra has sold her ‘mangalsutra’ to build a
toilet.
·
104 year old Kunwar Bai of
Kotabharri village in Dhamtari district of Chattisgarh sold her goats to do the
same.
·
20 year old Priyanka Adivasi
of Gopalpur village of Kolras block returned to her parents as there is no
toilet at her in-laws house and her husband now promised to build one.
·
A Muslim woman in Guntur
district of Andhra Pradesh gifted a toilet to her new daughter-inn-law since
she did not want the new member of her family suffer the way she did without a
toilet.
·
A school girl Lavanaya from
Karnataka went on hunger strike demanding toilets for all the 80 households in
her village.
·
A few weeks ago, 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 materials. This campaign was owned by Versova
Residence volunteer, a gentleman called Afroz Shah who started this mission
from October, 2015 whole heartedly with all his might and slowly people started
joining his bandwagon and turned it into a people’s movement.
Shri Naidu said
that the mission has gained significant momentum over the last three years. He
said that 33,76,793 Individual Household Toilets and 1,28,946 Community Toilet
Seats have so far been built. The Minister said that 688 cities have been so
far declared Open Defecation free (ODF) and 531 of them have been independently
verified and certified as ODF. Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat have declared all
cities and towns as ODF, he added. Shri Naidu said that 100% Door to Door
collection and transport of Municipal Solid Waste has been achieved in 43,200
wards out of the total 81,015 urban wards.
The
Minister said that in a short span of about three years, the initiative Swachh
Bharat Mission has truly become a people’s movement in the country and it is
only because of involvement of Public Representatives, SHGs, officials, media,
NGOs, UN agencies, celebrities, educational institutions, trade unions, business
Icons and Spiritual leaders. He said that FRNV as an organisation has done
considerable work in the space of sanitation, hygiene and cleanliness and we
need more and more organisations like this to help us achieve the goal.
During the
event, Shri M.Venkaiah Naidu also released a Souvenir, which contains the case
studies on Waste management.
The
President, FRNV Dr E. Sreedharan said that Swachh Bharat Mission is more important
than some of the economic reforms ushered in the country. He said that Swachh
Bharat initiative deserves all our support and assistance. Cleanliness shall
start from our heart, our home and our surroundings, he added.
****
KM
