Shah asks BJP MPs to promote cleanliness campaign, Centre’s ‘pro-poor’ schemes on Gandhi Jayanti

NEW DELHI: Home Minister Amit Shah addressed Bharatiya Janata Party’s Members of Parliaments as well as the party’s officer bearers in states about the party’s programme to mark Mahatma Gandhi''s 150th birth anniversary on October 2.

Amit Shah. PTI file photo

Tribune News Service
New Delhi, September 21

Home Minister Amit Shah addressed Bharatiya Janata Party’s Members of Parliaments as well as the party’s officer bearers in states about the party’s programme to mark Mahatma Gandhi's 150th birth anniversary on October 2.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is currently on an official visit to the United States, is expected to make a big announcement on single use plastics in the country on that day.

Shah is believed to have told his party MPs in a video conference he held with them to start campaigns on cleanliness and khadi use in their respective constituencies. They have also been asked to use the occasion to endorse the central government’s “pro-poor schemes”, sources said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the “Swachh Bharat Abhiyan”—the central government’s flagship cleanliness campaign—on October 2, 2014. The cleanliness campaign has since become one of his most endorsed programmes—a recent edition of the prime minister’s monthly ‘Mann ki Baat’ radio address witnessed him urging civic bodies, NGOs and corporate houses to pitch in to think of effective ways to dispose of accumulated plastic waste before Diwali.

Shah asked chief ministers of the country’s BJP-ruled states in a separate address to highlight the central government’s recently announced measures such as bringing down corporate taxes in discussions on economic issues the country faces, sources said. Shah’s address to BJP chief ministers comes at a time when reports of a flagging economy have lead to great concern in the country, prompting the opposition to criticise the Centre’s economic policies.

It also comes at a time when assembly elections approach in two crucial BJP ruled states in the country—Maharashtra and Haryana.

JP Nadda, the BJP’s working president, and several senior leaders of the party joined Shah during his address.

Prime Minister Modi has already asked BJP Members of parliament to undertake a 150 km 'padyatra' (foot march) between October 2, Gandhi's birth anniversary, and October 31, the birth anniversary of India’s first home minister Vallabhbhai Patel.