Promote healthy competition between cities for cleanliness: PM Modi at mayors’ conference

Dec 17,2021

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday called for healthy competition between cities for cleanliness. He added that new categories can be created for recognising cities making the best efforts to achieve cleanliness, along with the best-performing ones while ranking.

Cities are currently ranked for cleanliness under the Modi government’s flagship scheme Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was speaking at the inauguration of the All India Mayors’ Conference on Friday via video conference. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri were also present in Varanasi for the function.

Addressing the gathering, the Prime Minister said the development of Kashi can be a roadmap for the entire country.

“Most of the cities in our country are traditional cities, developed in a traditional way. In this era of modernization, the antiquity of these cities is equally important…these cities can teach us how to preserve heritage and local skills…destroying the existing structures is not the way but emphasis should be on rejuvenation and preservation. This should be done in accordance with the requirements of modern times,” the PM said.

He also asked the mayors to run programmes related to ‘Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav’ such as freedom struggle themed rangoli competitions or song and lullaby (lori) competitions.

He also suggested that the mayors can get in touch with the NCC units of the city and create groups to clean statues of the cities and organise speeches on the personalities in the spirit of ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’.

“Similarly, mayors can identify a place in their city and create a monument in sync with the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav through PPP (private-public partnership) mode,” he said. “Our cities are the driving force of our economy. We should make the city a hub of a vibrant economy,” he added.

Modi also suggested that the mayors should find out and celebrate the birthdays of the cities.

“Cities with rivers should celebrate the River Festival (Nadi Utsav),” he added. “Rivers should be brought back to the centre of city life. This will bring a new life to your cities,” the PM said.

He asked the mayors to revitalise the campaign against the elimination of single-use plastic and come up with ways of creating wealth from waste. He also asked to ensure that LED bulbs are used widely in the streetlights and homes of their cities on mission mode.

The Prime Minister reiterated the need to strengthen MSMEs in the development model. “Street vendors are part of our own journey, we will see their troubles every moment. For them, we have brought PM Svanidhi Yojana. This plan is very good. Make a list of them in your city and teach them to do mobile phone transactions. This will facilitate bank finance on much better terms,” he said, adding that during the pandemic, their importance came out very clearly.