Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday used his maiden Independence Day address from the ramparts of Red Fort to make out a strong case for a clean India with access to sanitation facilities for all.
Dwelling on the filth and squalor around Indian cities, towns and villages, he urged everyone to join in a national clean-up exercise so that the 150th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi is celebrated by a clean India.
Stating that people might view it as odd for a Prime Minister to be talking about toilets in his Independence Day address, he said: “I come from a poor family, I have seen poverty. The poor need respect and it begins with cleanliness.”
Reiterating the decision to launch a ‘Clean India’ campaign from October 2 and carry it forward in four years, the Prime Minister urged parliamentarians to use their development funds for building toilets in schools and asked the corporate sector to chip in by using funds under the Corporate Social Responsibility so that all government schools have sanitation facilities by August 15 next year.
