Page 76 - SocialHarmony

80 Social Harmony

clean, not even the dirtiest government can spoil it. To make a
mark and compare ourselves with the world, we must
emphasize on cleanliness first. We must encourage ourselves
to hate all that is dirty and unclean. In this mammoth task, I
need the help of the village sarpanches, district and taluka level
leaders, officers, social and religious leaders and every citizen –
man, woman, young, old. Only if everyone comes together in a
collective effort, will Gujarat become “nirmal” and we can
compare ourselves with the world.

It gives me great pain to say that even after 60 years of
independence, and 50 years of the existence of Gujarat as a
separate state, our mothers, sisters and daughters do not have
proper toilets to relieve themselves. Ladies have to painfully
wait till sunset to answer nature’s call. This is a disgraceful
situation. Why can’t we reduce the mental stress of our
womenfolk by providing proper toilets for them? We spend
crores of rupees on building temples, but as Respected
Shri Morari Bapu has said, “Toilets first, temples later.” Let us
take an initiative to keep our villages clean and provide these
basic sanitation facilities to our mothers, sisters and daughters.
My government plans to give a unique gift to each village in
2007. We are determined to take up this task, which even the
village Sarpanches have not been able to accomplish. I am ready
to spend as many resources as required for the welfare of the
villages.

The Village as a Unit of Governance
I have another mission. When I first became the Chief

Minister, my detractors were quick to point out that I had no
experience in governance. They wanted to know how a person
who has never been a member of a municipal corporation, never
been inside the Parliament and has directly become the Chief
Minister, would work for the welfare of the state. I publicly said
that not only have I never been part of any municipal
corporation, I was never even made the monitor of my class as
a student. I had never planned it, but I was given the
responsibility of being the Chief Minister. Similarly, there must