Ranchi: State drinking water and sanitation department minister Yogendra Prasad, armed with a broom, offered ‘shramdaan’ on the streets of Namkum block on Thursday as part of a cleanliness drive organised by the department under the Union govt’s ‘Swachhata Hi Seva 2026’ campaign.Urging people to keep their homes, villages, and surrounding public spaces clean, the minister said, “Cleanliness is a collective duty of every citizen and not solely the govt’s responsibility. Make cleanliness an integral part of your daily life.”The event aimed at fostering public participation in sanitation efforts, curb the use of plastics, promote environmental conservation, and transform cleanliness into a mass movement. “Plastic pollution could be curtailed through small, practical behavioural changes,” he added while distributing cloth bags among citizens.Departmental secretary Abu Imran stressed, “Sanitation efforts must be sustained as an ongoing public movement, with special focus on implementing effective Solid and Liquid Waste Management (SLWM) systems across rural areas. Active community partnership alongside state initiatives is vital to make sanitation infrastructure sustainable in the long term.”Adding to the call for action, SBM-G mission director Ranjita Hembram said, “’Swachhata hi Seva’ should be viewed not as a one-off event, but a continuous drive rooted in behavioural change.”Urging residents to “initiate sanitation practices at home and expand them into collective efforts at the village and panchayat levels”, Hembram focused on the “need to eliminate littering, properly segregate wet and dry waste, minimise plastic dependency, and extend dignity and respect to sanitation workers.”
