
PM Narendra Modi's birthday will be marked as "Sewa Diwas" or "Day of Service".
Quick Take
Summary is AI generated, newsroom reviewed.
Ministers to volunteer from 10 am to noon, clean bus-stands, markets
PM wants communities mobilized for Swacch Bharat mission
Cricket, hockey teams to be urged to adopt and clean slums
The PM's birthday will be marked, therefore, as "Sewa Diwas" or "Day of Service" and will employ ministers and the BJP's parliamentarians in cleaning public places including toilets and popular tourist destinations like India Gate, Juhu Beach and 15 other tourist places.
Ministers have also been asked to appropriate celebrities to join them and to adopt and clean slums in different cities.
In 2014, the PM launched the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan or Clean India Mission on the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi. "A clean India is the best tribute we can pay to Bapu when we celebrate his 150th birth anniversary in 2019," he said when he announced the nationwide campaign for cleanliness and better sanitation. While he was photographed sweeping the narrow lanes of a north Delhi slum, ministers and other government officials were ordered to regularly clean their offices - including their toilet - and involve voters in their constituencies in the campaign.
Critics have said Swachh Bharat has been confined to photo ops and has created little difference on the ground.
The Sewa Diwas programme will be inaugurated on September 15 two days before PM Modi's birthday by President Ram Nath Kovind when he visits his hometown Kanpur.
India Inc. have been asked to help raise 1,000 crores for the campaign during the campaign period.
Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world