CENTRAL STAFF TOOK PLEDGE ON CLEANLINESS
New Delhi: Lakhs of central
government employees Thursday took a pledge to ensure cleanliness in
their offices and residential areas by working at least two hours per
week as part of Narendra Modi administration's "Swachh Bharat" Mission.
Each central government department
had made detailed arrangements to administer the pledge to its employees
on the occasion of Mahatma Gandhi's birth anniversary today.
It is for the first time that all
employees from the level of peons to Secretary were called to the office
on 'Gandhi Jayanti', which is otherwise a government-declared holiday,
to be part of the 'Clean India' campaign.
Banners displaying message of
maintaining cleanliness at work place and surroundings were put up on
the central government office buildings and along the road sides to
encourage people.
Some of the employees were also given specially-designed T-shirts displaying messages for maintaining cleanliness.
Home Secretary Anil Goswami
administered the pledge to the employees of Ministry of Home Affairs and
Ministry of Personnel. Hundreds of employees participated in the
programme and took the pledge.
"It is like a celebration. Employees
are celebrating this. Cleanliness is a continuous process. I am sure
employees will continue to ensure cleanliness in office and in living
areas," said Mamta Kundra, Joint Secretary in Ministry of Personnel.
There are about 30.98 lakh central government employees in the country.
Employees took a pledge to remain
committed towards cleanliness. "I will devote 100 hours per year, that
is two hours per week to voluntary work for cleanliness. I will neither
litter nor let others litter. I will initiate the quest for cleanliness
with myself, my family, my locality, my village and my work place,"
reads the pledge, administered to the employees by senior officials.
The Prime Minister has given a call
for "Swachh Bharat" (Clean India) as a mass movement to realise Mahatma
Gandhi's dream of a clean India by 2019, when the country will celebrate
150th birth anniversary of the Father of the Nation.
"I will encourage 100 other persons
to take this pledge which I am taking today. I will endeavour to make
them devote their 100 hours for cleanliness," as per the text of the
pledge.
Cabinet Secretary Ajit Seth had
written to secretaries of all central government departments to create
awareness on the matter and ensure that the pledge is administered to
employees working under them.
"For a campaign of this nature to be
successful, there is a need to create massive public awareness and to
ensure participation and action for cleaning homes, government offices,
schools, hospitals, work places, streets, roads and markets, railway
stations and bus terminals, statues, monuments, rivers, lakes,ponds,
parks and other public places.
"It is important to involve
government and public sector officials at every level, non-government
organisations, education and health institutions, rural and urban local
bodies, Self-Help Groups, youth organisations, residents and market
associations as well as business and industrial chambers and
associations in the cleanliness and awareness drives," Seth had said in
his letter.