A state-wide cleanliness week across Mizoram got underway from Wednesday under the initiative of Urban Development & Poverty Alleviation Department (UD&PA).
Mizoram Planning Minister, Lalsawta, launched the week-long drive on Tuesday at a function held at Vanapa Hall in Aizawl.
Launching the cleanliness drive, Lalsawta said that cleanliness is vital to one’s health and that cleanliness leads to development of any society.
He exuded confidence that people have become conscious about maintaining cleanliness in their surroundings.
He also said that people has begun to value and admire those towns which hold rank in the cleanliness competition organized by the government under New Economic Development Policy (NEDP).
Lalsawta exhorted the people for a collective effort to maintain cleanliness.
The minister also gave away prizes to winners of cleanliness competition conducted this year.
Notably, Mizoram has been indulging in cleanliness drives since 1977, more than three decades before the Swachh Bharat Mission was launched by the Narendra Modi government.
Under the theme of Climate Change, cleanliness and sanitation drive, which is an important initiative of the government under NEDP towards cleanliness, Mizoram Sanitation Task Force was constituted to oversee the overall sanitation drive.
Apart from this, District Sanitation Task Force and Town Sanitation Task Force were also constituted in all the eight districts and towns.