Face of Nation : Union Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju on Tuesday called for a ‘plogging run’ exercise on Mahatama Gandhi’s birth anniversary on October 2, also the official launch date of prime minister’s flagship cleanliness programme ‘Swachh Bharat Mission’.
“Please join Plogging Run on 2nd October Gandhi Jayanti. We can collect any litter on the route while jogging. The trash-collecting activity while jogging will make India more CLEAN & FIT,” Mr Rijiju posted on Twitter along with a video.
Mr Rijiju’s call for plogging seems to be an attempt to link the two events related to health and sanitation. “Let us make the #FitIndiaMovement launched by PM Narendra Modi ji a people’s movement,” he added.
“Fit India plogging run programme will be organised on October 2, Mahatma Gandhi’s birth anniversary. It will help maintain sanitation and fitness,” Mr Rijiju said in a video. “We have to make prime minister’s fit India a people’s movement, because India is fit when we are fit,” the minister added.
PM Modi encouraged the nation to make fitness a part of the daily routine, saying: “There is no elevator to success, you have to take the stairs.” And to take the stairs, you have to be fit, PM Modi had said, addressing a large gathering of ministers, schoolchildren, celebrities and others in Delhi’s Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium.