Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai and senior government officials joined hundreds of volunteers and municipal employees in the the week-long cleaning campaign in Kathmandu that kicked off on Friday.

PM Bhattarai joined the volunteers with a broomstick in his hand to clean the street in front of the Constituent Assembly building at Naya Baneshwor. He participated in the cleaning works accompanied by his wife Hisila, local development minister Top Bahadur Rayamajhi, chief secretary Madhav Ghimire and other senior government officials.

Bhattarai said the government came up with the campaign in order to establish a culture of volunteerism.

Also joining the campaign today were army and police personnel and hundreds of students.

The cleaning campaign is part of an ambitious National Volunteer Campaign launched by the government. For one week, volunteers will clean the roads and rivers in the Kathmandu Valley.

The government aims to mobilise hundreds of thousands of youths and students for development works including sanitation, construction of school buildings and commercial farming across the country. nepalnews.com