Akhilesh mum on PM's nomination for Swachh Bharat

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav Saturday remained non-committal on his nomination made during the day by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Varanasi for the Swachh Bharat mission.

Seemingly stumped at the nomination by Modi to take forward the Swachh Bharat (Clean India) campaign, Akhilesh Yadav said while he was committed to cleanliness, the state government was more keen to link health awareness and environmental conservation to it.

He refused to respond to queries from reporters whether he had accepted the nomination by Modi or not.

His office in a late night release said that to make cleanliness comprehensive, it needs to be linked to environment conservation and awareness about health.

The Chief Minister's Office said the state had already initiated a "Clean, Green and Healthy UP" mission.

He also called for initiating a "Clean, Green and Healthy India" mission on the same lines, so that other than cleanliness, environmental conservation and health are also inter-linked and pan-India awareness is spread.

A state government spokesman said the government has already decided to develop Lucknow, Agra, Noida and Greater Noida as "cycle-friendly cities".

Under this plan, the communique said, cycle tracks would be built and cycle-stands and shelters would be set up.

By doing so, not only would cycling be encouraged but a healthy lifestyle would be promoted and pollution will be reduced.

The spokesman said a scheme to develop 50 acres or more as a green belt by planting saplings will be undertaken in every district.

To enhance the green cover in the state, in the year 2012-13 the state forest department had planted 3.93 crore saplings in 51,846 hectares of land.

In 2013-14, 5.68 crore saplings were planted on 67,600 hectares.