Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, Sept 29 : As a part of the ‘Swachh Bharat, Swastha Bharat Abhiyan’ (Clean India for Healthy India drive), announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Dr Jitendra Singh, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences, MoS in Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Space and Atomic Energy, today personally led the exercise undertaken by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) in North Block premises of the Union Capital.
He was accompanied by senior officers from North Block including Secretary DoPT Sanjay Kothari, Establishment Officer B P Sharma, Additional Secretary Bhaskar Khulbe, Private Secretary to Minister M Saravanan and others.
Addressing the staff members, Dr Jitendra Singh said, “it is a feeling of great gratification to see that the entire North Block has come out in full strength to join the nationwide cleanliness drive within just 12 hours of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call during his address at Madison Square, New York, USA last night, calling for repaying the debt owed to the Father of Nation, Mahatma Gandhi by gifting him with a Bharat which is clean and lives upto high standards of cleanliness which he always practiced and preached.”
Dr Jitendra Singh informed that the various Government departments under him have planned initiation of cleanliness drive during the week beginning from September 25 and ending on October 2, the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. He further informed that in the South Block the drive led by Principal Secretary to PM Nripendra Mishra and others was launched on September 26 and in the Ministries of Science & Technology and Earth Sciences, it will be launched on October 1, at their respective headquarters in New Delhi while on October 2, he would himself launch the drive for Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) from Jammu in which members of civil society are also expected to participate.
According to Dr Jitendra Singh, Secretary (Personnel) has written a letter to the Chief Secretaries of all State Governments to get involved in ‘Swachh Bharat Mission’ and a similar request has also been sent to various departments associated with DoPT, which include, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Staff Selection Commission (SSC), Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA) Mussoorie, Institute of Secretariat Training & Management (ISTM) and Union Public Service Commission (UPSC).
Dr Jitendra Singh cited the age old proverb, “a healthy mind resides in a healthy body” and said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s emphasis on cleanliness has for the first time, in a true sense, recapitulated the vision and ideals of Mahatma Gandhi.
During the cleanliness drive in DoPT today, over 60,000 old files were sent to record room or digitalized, almirahs kept in the corridors were removed, old almirahs were sent for repairing and furniture was sent for cleaning, dust-bins and water dispensers were cleaned. As a follow up, an essay competition was organized in the afternoon, and the employees of the Department will also be administered ‘Swachh Bharat Shapath” on October 2, the day of Gandhi Jayanthi.
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