New Delhi: To celebrate eight years of Swachh Bharat Mission-Urban, Hardeep Singh Puri the Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs has announced the commencement of 'Swachh Amrit Mahotsav', a fortnight of activities to galvanize action around swachhata, starting from Seva Diwas-17th September till Swachhata Diwas-2nd October 2022. The fortnight will focus on mobilizing citizen action and commitment towards the vision of building 'Garbage Free Cities'.

Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri released the official logo for the fortnight, 'Swachh Amrit Mahotsav: Ek Aur Kadam Swachhata Ki Aur' signifying the resolve to intensify and reinvigorate the Jan Andolan in the world's largest sanitation programme.

In line with the Prime Minister's vision of harnessing youthful energy for positive action, Union Minister has announced the first ever 'Indian Swachhata League', an inter-city competition to take place between the youth of the cities on September 17, 2022. For the maiden edition of ISL, more than 1,850 city teams from across the country have officially registered to compete. Each team will compete in the League by creating their own unique sanitation initiatives to focus on creating garbage free beaches, hills, and tourist places.

Mumbai Emperor, Delhi Swachhata Prahari and NDMC Warriors, Namma Chennai, Indomitable Bengaluru, Heritage Ahmedabad, and Hyderabad Swachh Champions are the teams of megacities that have already registered in the League. States with highest percentage of participating cities are Odisha, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Punjab, Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh, Tripura, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, and Jammu & Kashmir.

Furthermore, 47 out of the 61 plus cities and 20 State capitals are also joining the swachhata race.

Additionally, the ISL has successfully attracted a diverse set of Indian cities to take part in the first of its kind League. Cities from diverse geographies and with iconic tourist locations across the length and breadth of the country – such as Leh, Kanyakumari, Kohima, Dwarka, Konark, Port Blair, Rameswaram, Gaya, Poanta Sahib, Karta, Ujjain, Nashik, Varanasi, Pahalgam – have registered their teams and appointed team captains for the competition.

As a next step, citizens are invited to join their respective city teams on the official MyGov portal from 11 September 2022 onwards. This initiative has already generated a lot of excitement and interest amongst the youth fraternity. Various other interesting initiatives have been lined up during the fortnight such as the Start-Up Challenge Forum, Toycathon- Making toys from waste, Technology Exhibition, Swachh Seher Samvad, etc finally culminating with the observation of Swachh Bharat Diwas on 2nd Oct., Gandhi Jayanti.