Appealing to Vice-Chancellors of universities in the State to take up measures such as promoting green cover, as well as constructing adequate number of toilets on college campuses, Governor Ch. Vidyasagar Rao, who is also the Chancellor of Anna University, said that assimilating the idea of “cleanliness as our responsibility” was the need of the hour.
He was speaking at the Anna University on Wednesday, where he inspected the ‘Swachhta Hi Sewa’ campaign being implemented.
The campaign, initiated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, aims to spread awareness on cleanliness for a fortnight till Gandhi Jayanti on October 2.
“I appeal to all the engineering students here to come out with cost-effective toilets which will consume less water and be more hygienic in villages. This innovation will help a lot in constructing more toilets and keep the villages open defecation free,” Mr. Rao said.
‘Make it a movement’
Urging people to come forward and join hands to practise and promote cleanliness, the Governor said that the Swachh Bharat mission, which was initiated to make the country clean and open defecation-free, should become a ‘Jan Andolan’ or a people’s movement.
He inspected Mega Mess, Roja ladies hostel and the Tulip international hostel on the Anna University campus as part of the campaign.
Higher Education Secretary Sunil Paliwal said that as advised by the Governor, tree planting had been taken up in a massive way by the 13 universities in the State as well as colleges affiliated to them.
“While a target of 10 lakh saplings was set for us, 3 lakh saplings have already been planted as of Tuesday. Of these, 1.5 lakh saplings have been planted by Anna University alone,” Mr. Paliwal said.
