Brooms in hands, Uttarakhand ministers hit streets to make a ‘clean start’ - Hindustan Times
close_game
close_game

Brooms in hands, Uttarakhand ministers hit streets to make a ‘clean start’

Hindustan Times | By
Mar 20, 2017 08:58 PM IST

Dehradun: Dressed in crisp white kurta pyjamas, chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat and his ministers hit the streets with brooms in their hands on Monday for the Swachh Bharat initiative in Uttarakhand.

Chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat wields a broom during the Swachh Bharat drive in Dehradun on Monday.(Vinay Santosh Kumar/HT)
Chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat wields a broom during the Swachh Bharat drive in Dehradun on Monday.(Vinay Santosh Kumar/HT)

Looking to make a ‘clean start’, all the 10 ministers spent over an hour cleaning away dirt and muck across nine locations of the hill state.

Hindustan Times - your fastest source for breaking news! Read now.

The decision was taken at the Cabinet’s first meeting here on Sunday evening in order to give an impetus to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s flagship programme. Officialy, it was the first major programme conducted by the new government in Uttarakhand.

Trivendra Singh Rawat along with cabinet minister Madan Kaushik led the cleanliness exercise in Haridwar. Satpal Maharaj oversaw the drive in Satpuli (Pauri district), Prakash Pant in Doiwala (Dehradun), Harak Singh Rawat in Swargashram (Pauri), Yashpal Arya in Roorkee (Haridwar), Arvind Pandey in Kotdwar (Pauri) and Subodh Uniyal in Rishikesh (Dehradun).

Ministers of state Rekha Arya and Dhan Singh Rawat carried out the drive in Vikasnagar and Mussoorie respectively in Dehradun district for encouraging the locals to keep their surroundings clean.

“It (cleanliness mission) is an ongoing one...the motive behind today’s activity was to send a message that we (the government) are very serious for working towards a Swachh Uttarakhand,” the chief minister told the media.

“Making a city clean is not the government’s responsibility alone...you all should take it a personal responsibility,” Yashpal Arya appealed to the people through the media. The MLA from Bajpur constituency in Udham Singh Nagar district oversaw the cleanliness drive at Adarsh Nagar locality in Roorkee.

The opposition Congress was quick to dismiss the drive as a mere “photo-op exercise”. “It was nothing but a drama to grab eyeballs. There are six municipal corporations in Uttarakhand - all of them with BJP mayors and all of them filled with garbage. Had it (BJP) been really serious about the issue of (to be added) cleanliness, it would have already got the cities cleaned by now,” Uttarakhand Congress chief spokesperson Mathura Dutt Joshi told HT.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
Share this article
  • ABOUT THE AUTHOR
    author-default-90x90

    Neha Pant is a senior correspondent at Hindustan Times based in Dehradun, Uttarakhand. She writes on a range of topics including civic issues, urban development, politics, health, women and youth issues, culture and lifestyle.

SHARE
Story Saved
Live Score
OPEN APP
Saved Articles
Following
My Reads
Sign out
New Delhi 0C
Wednesday, March 20, 2024
Start 14 Days Free Trial Subscribe Now
Follow Us On