Ambani takes 'Swachh Bharat' campaign to Badrinath, Kedarnath

, Oct 18: Taking forward Prime Minister Narendra Modi's initiative to rid the country of litter and rubbish, Reliance Group chairman

today cleaned the Badrinath and Kedarnath temple premises and area around it to spread the message of 'Swachh Bharat'.

After cleaning the Badrinath temple, Ambani said, "Today, I am here for two important reasons. First, to take the blessings of Badrinath ji and Kedarnath ji and second important reason that I would like to share with you is, we do not keep our temples and places around it as clean as they should be. So let us all take this responsibility from today, to keep our religious places clean."

Ambani, who was among the nine celebrities named by Modi to carry the Swachh Bharat campaign forward, was accompanied by his wife Tina. Other celebrities named by Modi included cricketing icon Sachin Tendulkar and film stars Salman Khan and Priyanka Chopra, yoga guru Ramdev and Congress leader Sashi Tharoor.

"At this very religious place, I would like to take this pledge in the name of Badrinath and Kedarnath, lets make each and every temple and place of worship clean in order to accomplish the Swachh Bharat Mission," Ambani added. He said that Swachh Bharat Mission can only be successful if all of us work towards it together.

Ambani had last week, along with his friends, cleaned the area outside Churchgate Station in Mumbai and in turn had invited nine other prominent personalities, including Asian Games gold medallist boxer Mary Kom, legendary film star Amitabh Bachchan and tennis star Sania Mirza to take the Swachh Bharat campaign forward. Others named by Ambani include columnist Shobha De, leading journalist Shekhar Gupta, lyricist Prasoon Joshi, Bollywood superhero Hrithik Roshan, Telugu superstar Nagarjuna and Runners Clubs of India.

Applauding the initiative, Modi had tweeted, "Wonderful effort by Shri Anil Ambani, who cleaned the area around Churchgate Station in Mumbai along with his friends. #MyCleanIndia." Modi had used Gandhi Jayanti, the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, to start the cleanliness drive and ordered ministers to sweep areas clean.

"I have invited nine people and asked them to come to public places and work towards a Clean India. I ask them to invite nine more people too... I am sure these nine people will do the work and each will invite nine more people to form a chain and clean the country," Modi had said then.

PTI