Responding to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call for a 'Swachh Bharat', Eastern Command of the Army will adopt villages to promote cleanliness and hygiene.
Eastern Command Headquarters has issued guidelines and directions to all its lower formations to adopt a village each in their vicinity to extol the virtues of cleanliness and also lead by example in mobilising the residents to keep their surroundings clean, a Defence statement said.
In many locations, adoptions of villages by the Army, Navy and Air Force have been existing for a long time.
To make the drive for cleanliness in India into a mass movement, Armed Forces personnel from the Eastern Command and its lower formations, Eastern Air Command and other IAF units in West Bengal, and naval units will take oath on October 2, to realise Gandhiji's dream of clean India by the 150th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi in 2019.
Meanwhile, the Army is also planning to sustain the movement by encouraging family members of its personnel also to join the ongoing efforts at cleanliness.
Although the schools run by the Army are currently closed for Durga Puja vacations, a concerted drive after schools reopen will be undertaken for the students to take a leaf out of the ongoing drive and be ambassadors of cleanliness, the statement said.
