President Ram Nath Kovind today paid rich tributes to Mahatma Gandhi at his birthplace Kirti Mandir in Gujarat’s Porbandar and stressed that cleanliness was a “multi-stakeholder” national movement.
On the occasion of the 148th birth anniversary of the Mahatma, the president declared rural Gujarat open defecation free (ODF) and said: “this is the true homage to Gandhiji”.
He also launched a solid waste management and rural comprehensive cleanliness programme for 3,300-gram panchayats in Gujarat, the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi where elections are due later this year.
Addressing a function at Kirti Mandir, the president said that by becoming open defecation free, Gujarat has paid a “true homage to Gandhiji”.