File photo of Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu.
'Swacch Bharat' mission has caught the imagination of people, especially children and is becoming one of the most powerful people's movements after Independence, Union Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu has claimed.
Speaking in Hyderabad today after inaugurating an 'International Symposium on Municipal Solid Waste Management', he said, that's a good positive thing (catching imagination of children) and this needs to be further reinforced and consolidated to propel the people for action for cleanliness and hence intensive campaigns on different themes have been launched, the minister said.
"Swacch Bharat has been one of the major initiatives of Prime Minister and it is becoming one of the most powerful people's movement after Independence. I am happy about it,"
Mr Naidu said.
"As a minister, I have travelled extensively in different parts of the country and met people from different walks of life, age groups and socio-economic groups. I have made it a point to know their mind regarding this mission. I am happy to report that the message regarding clean habits, keeping one's own surroundings clean has certainly reached all including young kids," he said.
"Several people tell me of their grand children narrating instances of how in their schools they tell each other not to throw chocolate wrappers and other waste in the open as Modi (Prime Minister Narendra Modi) does not like it. Even my grand-daughter told me of 'Swacch Bharat' and Modi," he said.
"...one government at the Centre, state or one urban local body on its own cannot make it a successful mission. Everyone should get involved. Municipal solid waste management is one of the very important component of the 'Swacch Bharat' Mission," he said.
Venkaiah further said "cleanliness should become part of our life. There is a need for change of mindset because mindset in our India is "sab kaam sarkar karegi aur hum bekar baithenge toh chalega". This is the mindset and who is responsible for this...we politicians are responsible."
People's involvement, people's participation and people's contribution is vital, he stressed. "India is a huge country and we have many challenges and solid waste management is one of the major challenges before the country and it is becoming a health hazard," he said, adding, "we are not able to act effectively and correctively. We are acting compartmentally.
There has to be corrective thinking".
Today, municipal solid waste is one of the major environmental problems of the Indian mega cities. Unavability of suitable facilities to treat and dispose off the huge quantity of municipal solid waste generated daily is resulting in adverse impact on environment besides unhealthy outcomes, Venkaiah said.
Municipal solid waste management despite being primary responsibility of urban local body still remains a major obligation that has to improve and that's why the Centre also stepped in and Prime Minister launched the 'Swacch Bharat' Mission, he said.
One of the targets of 'Swacch Bharat' Mission is scientific solid waste management. By August this year, 100 per cent door-to-door collection has been reported in 31,593 of the total 78,000 wards, Venkaiah added.
The mission includes launching 100 per cent collection and transportation, 100 per cent processing and disposal in over 4,000 towns across the country for 30.6 crore people who are living in urban areas as of now, he said adding "against the mission target of 100 per cent collection and transportation of waste, 50 per cent is targetted to be achieved by March 2016."
The 'Swacch Bharat' mission is to reach out to minds of people and sensitise them towards the needs for adopting right behavioural attitude and it involves motivating people to towards avoiding littering as they like, keep one's own household surrounding and office environment clean and deciding against open defecation.
This is primary behavioural change that is essential for the success of this mission, Venkaiah added.