![Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh participating in the concluding programme of 75-day long countrywide Coastal CleanUp drive, at Juhu beach, Mumbai on Saturday. Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh participating in the concluding programme of 75-day long countrywide Coastal CleanUp drive, at Juhu beach, Mumbai on Saturday.](https://cdndailyexcelsior.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/page5-19.jpg)
Excelsior Correspondent
MUMBAI, Sept 17: Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Ministry of Science and Technology; Minister of State (Independent Charge) Ministry of Earth Science; MoS PMO, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Space and Atomic Energy, Dr Jitendra Singh today led the nation in countrywide Beach cleaning drive, by participating in the concluding nodal programme of the 75-day long campaign at Juhu beach here.
Simultaneous coastal cleanup and sea beach cleaning took place across all the sea beaches along 7,500 km long coastline of India with lakhs of volunteers participating to commemorate “International Coastal CleanUp Day’’ that is observed all over the world on the third Saturday of every September, which this year incidentally coincides with the birthday of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 17th September being observed as ‘Sewa Divas’.
While Governors, Chief Ministers, film artists and celebrities along with voluntary organisations join the countrywide drive at Juhu beach, Mumbai, Bhagat Singh Koshyari, Governor of Maharashtra graced the occasion and participated in beach clean-up activities along with thousands of volunteers from all walks of life.
BJP MP Poonam Mahajan and several celebrities as well as NGOs also joined the campaign. A specially composed video song sung by leading playback singers of Bollywood was also played on the occasion.
Speaking at the Juhu beach, Dr Jitendra Singh said, the International Coastal CleanUp Day this year coincides with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s birthday celebrated as “Sewa Divas”, which has doubled the spirit of volunteers and they have surpassed the target to remove 1,500 ton of single use plastic garbage from the sea coasts through clean-up drive across the country. The Minister informed that over one lakh volunteers have registered on Eco Mitram App alone.
The Minister reiterated that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had taken a lead in the cleanliness campaign, which motivated the entire nation to keep the 75,00 Kilometres long coastal line of India clean, safe and healthy for mankind.
Dr Jitendra Singh also thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his support through social media. Responding to a video posted by Dr Jitendra Singh about the clean-up at the beach, Modi had tweeted, “Commendable… I appreciate all those involved in this effort. India is blessed with a long and beautiful coastline and it is important we focus on keeping our coasts clean”.
Dr Jitendra Singh lauded the whole of Government and whole of country approach in the beach clean-up mission and particularly thanked for cooperation by Ministries of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, organisations and associations and educational institutions for participating in the clean-up campaign.