SHUBHAM SHARMA

Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (Hindi: स्वच्छ भारत अभियान, English: Clean Indian Mission) is a national level campaign by the Government of India, covering 4041 statutory towns to clean the streets, roads and infrastructure of the country.

This campaign was officially launched on 2 October 2014 at Rajghat, New Delhi, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself wielded broom and cleaned a road. The campaign is India's biggest ever cleanliness drive and 3 million government employees and schools and colleges students of India participated in this event. The mission was started by Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India, nominating nine famous personalities for this campaign, and they take up the challenge and nominate nine more people and so on(like the branching of a tree). It has been carried forward since then with famous people from all walks of life joining it.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched the country's biggest ever cleanliness drive today, Mahatma's Gandhi's birth anniversary. The five-year Swachh Bharat Abhiyan or Clean India campaign is expected to cost over Rs. two lakh crore.

1. The PM led a cleanliness pledge at India Gate, which 30 lakh government employees across the country joined. He also flagged off a walkathon at Rajpath and surprised people by joining in not just for a token few steps, but marching with the participants till the residence of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, nearly 800 metres away.
2. In his address, Mr Modi said the campaign was the best tribute to Mahatma Gandhi who "gave us the message 'Quit India, Clean India'." He rued that Gandhi's dream was still unfulfilled and exhorted the people to clean every corner of the country.
3. Mr Modi also invited nine people to join the cleanliness drive and requested each of them to draw nine more into the initiative to take it viral. Among them, cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, Congressman Shashi Tharoor and actors Kamal Haasan, Priyanka Chopra and Salman Khan. (Read more...) Actor Aamir Khan was among those who joined the PM for the event.
4. He emphasised that the initiative was "beyond politics" and inspired by patriotism. He acknowledged the efforts of previous governments to make India clean and said cleanliness was not the work of a few; all citizens mu