On Monday, Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta inaugurated the ‘Delhi Ko Kude Se Azadi-Swachhta Abhiyan 2026’ at the Kedarnath Sahni Auditorium, located at the Municipal Corporation of Delhi headquarters. The initiative aims to promote cleanliness across the city by encouraging civic wards to compete for a prize of Rs 1 crore. This competition is designed to motivate local authorities to enhance their waste management practices and improve the overall sanitation in their areas.
A brochure on the cleanliness campaign was also released on the occasion. Union Minister of State and Delhi BJP president Harsh Malhotra, Delhi Urban Development Minister Ashish Sood, Delhi Mayor Pravesh Wahi, Chief Whip and MLA Abhay Verma and others were present at the programme. Despite criticism at the time, the cleanliness campaign became a mass movement across the country and played an important role in providing crores of families with access to dignified toilet facilities. Government departments, local bodies, market associations, RWAs, educational institutions, industrial organisations, voluntary organisations and citizens will all be brought together to give the campaign the character of a broad-based people’s movement.
She said the special cleanliness campaign will run across the capital till October 2, 2026.
It aims to strengthen the city’s sanitation system further, promote scientific waste management, ensure cleanliness of public spaces, and increase public participation by making citizens more aware of cleanliness, she said. Referring to Mahatma Gandhi’s efforts to link cleanliness with the freedom movement, he said Prime Minister Narendra Modi, too, had called for turning cleanliness into a national movement in his first Independence Day address after taking office as Prime Minister.
