Modi launches 'Clean India', says it's patriotism not politics

Wielding the broom himself, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today launched 'Clean India' campaign joined by chief ministers, lawmakers, prominent personalities from various fields along with lakhs of countrymen in a drive that is expected to cost nearly Rs 2 lakh crore.
Asserting that "Swachh Bharat" mission is "beyond politics" and inspired by "patriotism", he invoked Mahatma Gandhi's vision of a "clean and developed" India as he formally kicked off the five-year-long campaign, which will cover 4,041 statutory towns, on the 145th birth anniversary of the Father of the Nation.
The tech-savvy Modi even launched his own version of ALS ice bucket challenge, nominating nine eminent personalities including Sachin Tendulkar, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, industrialist Anil Ambani along with several actors like Salman Khan, Priyanka Chopra and Kamal Hassan to spread awareness on the issue and asked them to continue the chain.

At a function at Rajpath here, Modi administered a pledge to people to make India clean, but not before himself sweeping the pavement in Valmiki Basti, a colony of sanitation workers here.
President Pranab Mukherjee launched the campaign at Kirnahar Shib Chandra High School, where he studied, in West Bengal, and said every Indian should devote two hours daily or at least 100 hours annually in cleanliness drive.
It is for the first time government employees from the level of peons to Secretary were called to the office on 'Gandhi Jayanti', which is a national holiday, to be part of the 'Clean India' campaign. There are about 31 lakh central government employees across the country.

In the states too, the event was marked by fervour and symbolism as the Chief Ministers and Governors started the drive by administering the pledge and joined students and common people in cleaning public buildings, parks, schools, railway platforms and roads.
Union Minister Nitin Gadkari announced that Rs 20 lakh per annum will be allocated to each village panchayat for the Clean India campaign. While the Urban Development Ministry will allocate Rs 62,000 crore for cleaning towns across the country, the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation will spend Rs 1 lakh 34 thousand crores for the programme.