Sanitation is worship for me: Modi

Varanasi, Sep 23 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said sanitation was also worship for him as it can rid the poor of various diseases.

Addressing a public gathering on the second day of his Varanasi visit, he said it was his good fortune to lay the foundation stone of a public toilet in Shahanshahpur village of his Lok Sabha constituency.

"That is because sanitation is also a kind of worship for me. It will rid the poor of my country of various diseases and the economic burden due to those diseases that result from dirty surroundings," Modi said.

He said while no one likes garbage, everyone in India shies away from the responsibility of keeping their surroundings clean.

"It is the responsibility of every citizen and every family to keep their surroundings clean so we are able to build clean villages, clean cities and a clean nation," Modi said.

The Prime Minister urged people to take one resolution each to improve the nation by 2022, which marks 75 years of independence.

"In the coming five years, we have to be committed towards that resolution. If 125 crore people take one resolution each and live up to it, then the nation would move 125 crore steps forward in the next five years," he said.

Modi added the government's resolution was to double the farmer's income and ensure even the poorest of the poor have a home to live in by 2022.

"There are crores of families in our nation which don't have a roof above their heads. It is our responsibility that the poorest of the poor have a home to live in.

"So we have taken the responsibility that by 2022, we will build homes for everyone who doesn't have one now, be it in cities or in villages."

He added that those homes - crores in number - would need bricks, cement, iron and wood, and would create several employment opportunities.

Taking a dig at the previous Samajwadi Party government in Uttar Pradesh, Modi said it had no interest in building homes for the poor.

"We used to write them letters after letters to submit a list of homeless so we could create a scheme for them. But the last government was not interested in building homes for the poor. After putting a lot of pressure on them, they submitted a list of 10,000 names," Modi said.

He added that after the BJP formed government in the state under the leadership of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, lakhs of names have been registered for whom homes would be built.