Indians pledge support to Swachh Bharat Abhiyan with pictures, videos

A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, people from across the country Friday posted pictures of cleaning their surroundings and neighbourhoods on social sites.

Modi had Thursday urged people, especially the youth, to connect through social media, including Facebook and Twitter and asked them to upload photos and videos of the cleanliness work done by them and on social media at #MyCleanIndia.

As a result, the page saw regular updates all through the day.

Mumbai-based Narssimhhan Kannan shared photos where the residents of his colony came out in large numbers and cleaned their surroundings.

The photos showed enthusiastic residents of all ages wearing gloves and holding huge bags in which they collected empty packets of chips, plastic bottles, etc.

"We did our bit to keep our society and our immediate surroundings clean. Here, in this album you can see how enthusiastically, children and adults participated in the endeavour," Kannan said in a message posted on his Facebook account.

Padmesh Lala, a resident of Bangalore posted two pictures of a spot that he cleaned and had this to say: "Stop supporting Modiji. Start following him," referring to the prime minister's cleaning of a road outside Mandir Marg police station in central Delhi Thursday as part of the campaign.

And it seemed, Kochi resident Mohammed Jaisal did follow Modi literally as he picked up a broom and cleaned a road in his village emulating the prime minister.

"Roadside cleaning at my village as part of 'Swachh Bharat Mission'," he said in the message along with the before and after pictures of the spot.

Fellow citizen Kaustubh Patil from Navi Mumbai shared photos of cleaning a park near his residence and posted this message: "Start with yourself and see the change."

Micro-blogging site Twitter too saw a deluge of messages and suggestions supporting the campaign.

"MyCleanIndia would be possible if we keep dustbins at every 50-100 m and clean toilets at every 400-500 m," tweeted Deep Rai.

"A leader is who adopts change and brings change in everyone..A small change mycleanindia will lead to change in everyone.A moment start," said Kartik KN in his tweet.