Government ropes in Shilpa Shetty as Swachh Bharat brand ambassador

The 41-year-old actress will feature in TV and radio campaigns aimed at discouraging people from littering on roads. Soon, campaign posters featuring her will be displayed at various places across the country. 

"We aim to rope in public icons to help achieve the target of Swachh Bharat Mission. A campaign featuring Shetty will be rolled out at national level soon," Urban Development Ministry Joint Secretary and director of Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban) Praveen Prakash told PTI. Littering is a major problem in urban areas wherein people, specially vendors or shopkeepers, do not use bins to throw the waste, he said.

The Ministry has also approached other celebrities like Priyanka Chopra to support the mission, which aims cleanliness and eradication of open defecation by 2019.

Shetty is the latest entrant in the list of the mission's ambassadors like Amitabh Bachchan, Salman Khan, Shankar Mahadevan and Sachin Tendulkar.