Navi Mumbai’s temples and shrines have turned into the latest battleground for cleanliness as the civic body pushed its ‘Swachhata Hi Seva’ campaign beyond the usual streets and garbage points. In a bid to rope in communities and make the fortnight-long drive more participatory, the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) carried out deep-cleaning operations at major religious sites across all six nodes on Sunday.
NMMC Commissioner Kailas Shinde, who has drawn up a daily calendar of activities for the fortnight under the national ‘Swachh Bharat Mission’, directed officials to focus on religious premises and their surroundings this week.
“The idea is not just civic staff at work, but people themselves joining hands in keeping faith spaces clean,” an NMMC official said.
Across the city, additional commissioners, deputy commissioners, and sanitary inspectors teamed up with temple trusts, devotees, and citizens to scrub, sweep and clear garbage around shrines, including the Balaji Tekdi Ashram in Belapur, Gavdevi temple in Nerul, Datta Mandir in Sanpada, Pawneshwar Mandir in Koparkhairane, Shriram Mandir in Rabale, and the Durga Mata Mandir in Digha.
Officials said the move was deliberate as shrines and their adjoining lanes often witness heavy footfall, street vendors and offerings that lead to hygiene issues.
“We wanted to show that ‘swachhata’ is not just about roads and drains but also about places of worship,” said a ward officer involved in the drive.
The campaign witnessed enthusiastic turnout, with temple committees mobilising devotees and NMMC’s sanitation workers working shoulder-to-shoulder with citizens. The civic chief believes that such visible and collaborative efforts send a stronger message about hygiene than routine drives.
By turning religious sites into models of cleanliness, the civic body is hoping to nudge citizens into adopting similar practices at homes, markets and other public spaces. For NMMC, this is also about optics, making a nationwide campaign feel local, emotional, and people-driven.
