india

Updated: Sep 25, 2019 21:53 IST

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on occasion of Mahatma Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary on October 2 will declare the nation open-defection free.

The announcement will be made to the crowd of over 20,000 Sarpanchs at Sabarmati Riverfront in Ahmedabad.

``Nearly half of the Sarpanchs will be from Gujarat and rest half from various other states,’’ said Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel adding, ``The first step of open defecation free country toward swachhta that PM had made has been achieved. This will be announced by the PM on October 2 at Ahmedabad during national Sarpanch convention’’.

The Deputy chief minister added that by taking Gandhi’s dream of cleanliness as social mission, the PM led the country in creating awareness in this direction.

He said that Sarpanchs from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattishgrah, Punjab, Haryana, Union Territories and other states will attend the convention.

In four groups, the Sarpanchs from other states will also tour some of the places related to life and time of Gandhiji in Gujarat. They will also be introduced to Gujarat’s culture of celebrating Navratra through performance of garba.

Also part of this celebration of Swachhta divas will be Gandhians,scholars, ministers and representatives of NGOs.

The NDA in its first term, which began in 2014, had taken up clean India missing and construction of toilets, especially in slums and rural areas.