Vadodara: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday praised residents of Gujarat’s Vadodara for turning a city-wide cleanliness campaign into a public participation exercise ahead of his visit, urging citizens to maintain the effort through the upcoming Ganesh festival, Navratri, and Diwali.
Addressing a gathering in the ‘NaMo 4 Viksit Bharat’ programme at Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, PM Modi said he had watched videos of the campaign and was impressed by the scale of participation across the city.
“I was watching a video yesterday. My chest swelled with pride — wow, my Vadodara!” he said, referring to the cleanliness work, under ‘Swachhata se Swagat’, undertaken in the city before his arrival.
The Prime Minister thanked residents for what he described as a “service-oriented” welcome. “The campaign had created a cleanliness-focused atmosphere in families across Vadodara during the preceding week,” he asserted.
He linked the initiative to the city’s festive calendar, noting that Vadodara would soon prepare for Ganeshotsav and Navratri, with Diwali to follow. “I feel that when Ganeshji comes this time, all the blessings will shower on Vadodara,” he said.
PM Modi later called on residents to turn the temporary cleanliness campaign into a permanent civic commitment.
In Gujarati, he asked the people of Vadodara not to allow the city to become dirty again after the work undertaken before his visit. “Now let us resolve that we will not let Vadodara become dirty,” he said.
The campaign was undertaken ahead of PM Modi’s September 8 programme, during which he inaugurated, dedicated and laid foundation stones for projects worth more than Rs 35,000 crore.
The Vadodara Municipal Corporation had undertaken a city-wide cleanliness and environmental drive covering public spaces, lakes, gardens, healthcare and childcare facilities, heritage sites and water bodies, with participation from sanitation workers, citizens, officials, elected representatives, educational institutions, and NGOs.
Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel had said that sanitation workers and residents had participated in cleaning roads, public places and surrounding areas. “20 lakh saplings had been distributed for plantation and other environmental activities,” he said.
PM Modi acknowledged the work of sanitation workers and citizens and said their participation had showcased that cleanliness could itself become a form of public welcome.
The cleanliness campaign added a civic participation component to a programme otherwise dominated by large infrastructure announcements.
The event included the inauguration of the completed Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (WDFC), new railway services, railway capacity expansion, highway projects, and Gujarat government initiatives in housing, water supply, urban development and renewable energy.
For Vadodara, the campaign also preceded a digitally managed public-entry system for the Prime Minister’s programme.
Free registrations opened on BookMyShow, and all available seats were booked within an hour, with more than 42,000 applicants subsequently placed on a waiting list.
(IANS)
