‘Reward for our endeavour’, say Patwai youth whom PM Modi mentioned in ‘Mann Ki Baat’ address

Lucknow, Aug 30 (IANS) Two Rampur youth Akash Yadav and Rohan Dev, who found praise from Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the ‘Mann Ki Baat’ address on Sunday, for their cleanliness campaign in Patwai village, said that they are overjoyed with such acknowledgement and this has boosted their morale and energised them to take their campaign more aggressively.

The two individuals, visibly excited over their names finding a mention in Prime Minister’s address, said that this was like a reward for their endeavour.

Nearly a year ago, they launched “Patwai clean-up” campaign and achieved considerable success in maintaining cleanliness and hygiene across the village, with many from the neighbourhood praising their initiative.

Akash Yadav and Rohan Dev initiated the clean-up after noticing filth in their village.

The initiative, starting on a small scale has evolved into a full-fledged campaign today and their endeavour was recognised by the Prime Minister.

When they found that their village was littered with filth, Akash and Rohan picked up garbage bags and started collecting the garbage.

Many young people also joined and a team was formed — named ‘Clean-up Patwai’.

The initiative by Akash and Rohan has inspired others to join in. Today, a group of about 15 youth run the ‘Clean-up Patwai’ campaign.

Akash Yadav, when questioned about the honour, said, “I am overjoyed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi mentioned my name and that of my friend, Rohan Dev, today. It is not just me, people are congratulating my village and the entire city, acknowledging that hard work we put in over the last 8–10 months has truly paid off.”

A couple of volunteers, who joined the two friends in clean-up campaign also shared their excitement.

Paramjit Singh said, “Wherever we find filth—be it at religious sites or any other location—we clean it up; we are running this major campaign.”

Another volunteer Nikhil Srivastava said, “We are planning to take this campaign across the entire country. We want to expand this initiative to all of India”, while Pawan Yadav said, “The country will improve only when we improve ourselves. People complain about the filth, yet they are the ones creating it, and no one comes to clean it up.”

Sameer Hussain called for scaling up the campaign beyond Rampur for achieving broader objectives of Swachh Bharat.

The duo did not limit their efforts to village alone, they also conducted cleanup drives at Ganga ghats, ponds, parks, markets, and other public spaces.

According to them, four Ganga ghats have been cleaned so far, and over a ton of plastic waste has been removed.

Also, a large number of saplings have been planted for environmental conservation.

–IANS

mr/khz