18 nominated as Swacch Bharat ambassadors

Hyderabad, Jan 5 (INN): Union Minister for Urban Development M Venkaiah Naidu on Monday nominated eighteen distinguished personalities from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh as ambassadors for the Swacch Bharat Mission to propagate this national campaign on cleanliness in their own spheres.

The Swacch Bharat Mission ambassadors are noted media personality Vemuri Radha Krishna, veteran singer Dr. S.P. Balasubramanium, Yashoda Hospitals Group MD Dr. G.S. Rao, Infotech CMD B.V.R. Mohan Reddy, My Home Group promoter Dr. Rameshwar Rao, noted surgeon Dr. Gopichand, IT industry representative J.A. Chowdary, film actor Nitin, lyricist Ashok Teja, chess player Koneru Humpy, Badminton stalwart Pullela Gopichand, cricketer VVS Laxman, Nizamabad MP K Kavita and Guntur MP Jayadev Galla.

Noted singer S.P Balasubramaniam has pledged to propagate the campaign using his influence as a cultural icon by dedicating a song exclusively on Swacch Bharat, penned down by the Telugu lyricist Vennelakanti that would be later translated into other Indian languages.

He also committed to introduce Swacch Bharat theme through his television program. The famed Hyderabadi batsman VVS Laxman stressed that transformation should start at the grass root level, and start from schools. Kavita, the Member of Parliament from Nizamabad emphasized the need for synergizing the collective efforts of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and emphasized the need for better maintenance mechanism for sustaining the campaign.

Mohan Reddy committed to support the cause by bringing corporate social responsibility (CSR) funds, corporate volunteerism and good business processes towards the campaign. Ashok Teja, noted lyricist dedicated a song on Swacchh Bharat and has committed to convey the message of the campaign through his work. Jaydev Galla emphasized the public health and the environmental costs of sub optimal sanitation and encouraged the governments to allocate more resources towards the program.

The Hon'ble union minister also shared that Pawan Kalyan, noted film personality, Amala Akkineni, Animal rights activist, and the industrialist G.V. Krishna Reddy have pledged their support to strengthen the mission and spread the message across. The minister also emphasized the requirement of changing the current attitudes and mindset towards sanitation as a crucial change agent for the successful implementation of this campaign. A token sum for the mission for the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana is being released today.

Urban Development Secretary Shankar Aggarwal, Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Secretary Anita Agnihotri, Joint Secretaries of Union Government Neeraj Mandloi, Sameer Sharma, B.K. Aggarwal and Praveen Prakash also spoke on the occasion.

Later, the Union Minister inaugurated a day long consultative workshop on Urban Governance here on Monday. The Municipal Commissioners of five states - Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Puducherry participated in the Workshop.

The workshop was being organized by the Ministry of Urban Development, Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, Government of India and Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI) is the knowledge partner for this consultation.

Senior officers from the Ministry of Urban Development & the Ministry of Housing, and Urban Poverty Alleviation have shared the guidelines of Swacch Bharat Mission, National Urban Livelihood Mission, Housing for All, and the New Urban Development Mission and solicited view from the participating cities.