Ujjain: President Droupadi Murmu on Thursday said cleanliness only will make the country healthy and developed and appealed to the people to come forward and take a step in this direction.
Addressing the Safai Mitra Sammelan (conference of sanitation workers) in Ujjain, Murmu also lauded Madhya Pradesh's Indore city for remaining on top in the cleanliness survey for the seventh time in a row and Bhopal for being the cleanest state capital in the country.
"It gives me immense happiness to felicitate 'safai mitras' (sanitation workers). Cleanliness only will make the country healthy and developed. By honouring 'safai mitras' we are honouring ourselves," she said. Murmu appealed to the people to take a step forward to make the country "swachh, swasthya aur viksit" (clean, healthy and developed).
The Swachh Bharat Mission has become a nationwide movement in the last 10 years and resulted in bringing about comprehensive changes in the country, she said. The campaign raised awareness about cleanliness among the people and their behaviour towards "swachhata" has changed a lot, the president said.
She also congratulated the government for making a provision of toilets for female students in schools, which has resulted in raising their literacy level. On the occasion, Murmu felicitated five 'safai mitras', including four women, for their dedicated efforts towards cleanliness.
She also laid the foundation stone for the Ujjain-Indore six-lane road, to be built at the cost of Rs 1,692 crore. Earlier in the day, Murmu planted a Kadamb (Bur flower) sapling on the campus of the more than two-century-old Residency Kothi in Indore.
MP Governor Mangubhai Patel and Chief Minister Mohan Yadav joined her and planted the saplings of Rudraksh and Parijat trees, respectively, on the premises, officials said. Yadav presented to Murmu a literature containing details of the public welfare schemes being run by his government, they said. Murmu president the CM a picture of the Rashtrapati Bhavan as a souvenir of her visit to the state.
