Hyderabad celebs become icons for Swachh Bharat

Union Minister for Urban Development, Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, Venkaiah Naidu, inaugurated a day long consultative workshop on urban governance on Monday. He nominated eighteen distinguished personalities from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana as ambassadors for the Swachh Bharat Mission to propagate the national campaign on cleanliness. This includes Vemuri Radha Krishna, noted media personality; SP Balasubrahmanyam, veteran singer; Dr GS Rao, Group MD, Yashoda Hospitals; BVR Mohan Reddy, CMD, Infotech; Dr Rameshwar Rao, promoter of noted infrastructure company- My Home Group; Dr Gopichand, noted surgeon, JA Chowdary, IT industry representative; Nitin, film actor; Ashok Teja, lyricist; Koneru Humpy, chess player; Pullela Gopichand, badminton stalwart; VVS Laxman, cricketer; Kavita, Nizamabad MP and Jayadev Galla, Guntur MP.

Balasubrahmanyam pledged to propagate the campaign using his influence as a cultural icon by dedicating a song exclusively on Swachh Bharat, penned down by Telugu lyricist Vennelakanti that would be translated later into other Indian languages. He also committed to introduce the Swachh Bharat theme through his television programme. Laxman stressed that transformation should start at the grassroots level and start from schools.

Kavita emphasised the need for synergising the collective efforts of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and emphasised the need for better maintenance mechanism for sustaining the campaign. Mohan Reddy promised to support the cause through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds, corporate volunteerism and good business processes towards the campaign. Ashok Teja dedicated a song on Swachh Bharat and promised to convey the campaign’s message through his work. Jaydev Galla emphasised on public health and environmental costs of sub-optimal sanitation and encouraged governments to allocate more resources towards the programme.

Venkaiah Naidu also shared that actor Pawan Kalyan, animal rights activist Amala Akkineni and industrialist GV Krishna Reddy have pledged their support to strengthen the mission and spread the message across. The minister emphasised the requirement of changing the current attitudes and mindset towards sanitation as a crucial change agent for the successful implementation of the campaign.

Shankar Aggarwal, secretary, Urban Development; Anita Agnihotri, secretary, Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation; Neeraj Mandloi, joint secretary; Sameer Sharma, joint secretary; BK Aggarwal, joint secretary and Praveen Prakash, Urban Development Ministry, spoke on the occasion. Municipal commissioners from four states (Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala) and union territory Puducherry participated in the workshop.

Senior government officials shared the guidelines of the Swachh Bharat Mission, National Urban Livelihood Mission, Housing for All and the New Urban Development Mission and solicited views from the participating cities. The workshop was being organised by the Ministry of Urban Development, Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, Government of India and Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI) is the knowledge partner for this consultation.