STATE TIMES NEWS
MUMBAI: Union Minister, Dr Jitendra Singh on Saturday led the nation in countrywide Beach cleaning drive, by participating in the concluding nodal programme of the 75-day long campaign at Juhu beach here.
The formal launching of the campaign had also been done by the Minister on 5th of July this year.
Simultaneous coastal cleanup and sea beach cleaning took place across all the sea beaches along 7,500 km long coastline of India with lakhs of volunteers participating to commemorate “International Coastal CleanUp Day” that is observed all over the world on the third Saturday of every September, which this year incidentally coincides with the birthday of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 17th September being observed as ‘Sewa Divas’.
While Governors, Chief Ministers, film artists and celebrities along with voluntary organisations join the countrywide drive, at Juhu beach, Mumbai, Bhagat Singh Koshyari, Governor of Maharashtra graced the occasion and participated in beach clean-up activities along with thousands of volunteers from all walks of life.
BJP MP Poonam Mahajan and several celebrities as well as NGOs also joined the campaign. A specially composed video song sung by leading playback singers of Bollywood was also played on the occasion.
Dr Jitendra Singh said, in India, the longest and largest beach cleaning campaign in the world lasting 75 days culminated today with Governors, Chief Ministers, Union Ministers, MPs, MLAs, celebrities including from film and sports world, civil society groups joining the campaign with overwhelming enthusiasm at important beaches in the country. Speaking at the Juhu beach, Dr Jitendra Singh said, the International Coastal CleanUp Day this year coincides with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s birthday celebrated as “Sewa Divas”, which has doubled the spirit of volunteers and they have surpassed the target to remove 1,500 ton of single use plastic garbage from the sea coasts through clean-up drive across the country.
The Minister informed that over one lakh volunteers have registered on Eco Mitram App alone.