india

Updated: Sep 26, 2019 00:33 IST

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

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

“Nearly half of the sarpanchs will be from Gujarat and rest from other states,” said deputy chief minister Nitin Patel, adding, “The first step towards swachhta has been achieved by making the country open defecation-free. This will be announced by the PM on October 2 at Ahmedabad during the national sarpanch convention.”

The deputy chief minister said the PM had led the country in turning Mahatma Gandhi’s dream of cleanliness into a social mission.

He said that sarpanchs from states including Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhatishgrah, Punjab and Haryana, and Union Territories, will attend the convention.

The visiting sarpanchs will also take a tour of some of the places related to the life and times of Gandhiji in Gujarat. They will also be introduced to Gujarat’s culture of celebrating Navratra through garba.

Also part of the celebration will be Gandhians, academicians, ministers and representatives of NGOs.

In its first tenure in 2014, the NDA had taken up Swachh Bharat Mission with special focus on construction of toilets, especially in slums and rural areas.