IMPHAL, March 19: A rally was taken out today as part of the ongoing National Rural Drinking Water and Sanitation Awareness Week which commenced on March 16 and will continue till March 22.
Today’s rally was organised by the PHE department and flagged off from the department office and concluded at the Kangla Western Gate.
A one day workshop on Swachh Bharat Mission for media persons was also held today at the CCDU Training Hall, Lamphelpat organised jointly by the Communication and Capacity Development Unit (CCDU), PHED.
Speaking at the workshop CCDU director L Swamikanta said under the initiative of Prime Minister, the Swachh Bharat Mission also aims to make India open defecation free by 2019.
The main objective of organising today’s workshop is to spread awareness of the National Rural Drinking Water Programme and Sanitary Toilet to media persons, he said.
He said for the success of a programme we need media to reach out the information to the masses.
The National Rural Drinking Water Programme and Rural Sanitation Programme is important for a healthy society, he said and added that the Rural Sanitation Programme was launched in 1986 as Central Rural Sanitation Programme.
He said the Total Sanitation Campaign was launched in 1999 and later its name was changed to Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan in April 2012.
Currently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Swachh Bharat Mission on October 2, 2014 in place of Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan.
The rural sanitation situation has improved considerably in the State, he said.
He added that there is a need for cooperation from the public individual as well as collective and a push from the State government to ensure success of the programme.