Environmental protection is each one’s responsibility – Dr Harish Joshy
Mangaluru: Ramakrishna Mission’s 39th Swacchata Abhiyan shramadan was organized in Airport Road at Bondel on 8th July from 7:30 am to 10:00 am. The Shramadan was jointly flagged off by Dr Harish Joshy, Retd. Professor, St. Aloysius College, Mangalore and Kishan Srinivas Ammady, Employee at Infosys. Balakrishna Rai, Masahiro, Satish T Yekkur, Himmat Singh, Santosh Suvarna, Deepak Melanta and others were present on the occasion.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr Harish Joshy said, “Environmental protection is each one’s responsibility. We are getting everything from nature. Hence we have to preserve nature. It is unfortunate that we don’t feel responsible for conserving & preserving our nature. Swacch Mangaluru Abhiyan is a welcome attempt and is creating awareness among the citizens.” Kishan Srinivas opined, “If we just wish that we should have the cleanliness and discipline seen abroad in India too, it’s not enough. Only government policies cannot make a nation better. It’s upon each & every individual citizen that the success of the policy implementation stands. I was staying in the US for the last 8 years. Wishing to bring some change in India and contribute towards the society, I have returned to India. I was thrilled to note the saga of Swacch Mangaluru in the last 4 years.”
Shramadan was carried out near PWD office at Ashwatta Katte & surrounding areas. After flagging off, volunteers cleaned the surroundings of the bus shelter. Volunteers were divided into different groups under Dilraj Alva and cleaned several areas on Airport road. Sand accumulated on the concrete road obstructing vehicles was removed. Drains were cleared off the garbage, thus enabling easy movement of rainwater down the drain. A spot that was littered with garbage & heaps of sand was cleared. Overgrown weeds & grass were removed near Ashwattha Katte. Heaps of sand lying on the footpath were also removed helping the pedestrians thereby. Illegal banners on the airport road were removed.
Passengers waiting for buses had only the shade of peepal tree for roof near PWD office at Bondel before. Upon the request of the locals, a New bus shelter was erected on the spot and was dedicated today. It has all the facilities like a good roof, seats and tiled ground. Dedicated efforts of Shubhoday Alva, Umanath Kotekar, Ashok Subbayya and many others were behind the creation of this public utility.
Last Sunday, Shramadan was carried out at Bikarnakatte and garbage was cleared. It was followed by the visit to several fast food shops and urging them not to litter and help in maintaining the city clean. Since then daily, volunteers were monitoring the area to check if the shop vendors litter the area again. They have successfully stopped hotel staff from throwing garbage and dirt in the spot and have forced them to clean the spot littered by them. The local public have appreciated the efforts of the volunteers. Volunteers also cleaned a spot prone to littering near the temple of Koragajja in between Padavinangady & Bondel church. Suma Kodikal, Chethana and many other volunteers participated in this without caring for rains. Suresh Shetty & members of Nivedita Balaga visited houses and shops in the area and created awareness among them.
Volunteers of Swacch Mangaluru Abhiyan are visiting each & every house informing them about segregation of wet & dry waste as also how to compost the wet waste generated in their house by using Pot-compost and use the manure thus produced in their gardens. They are also distributing bags for collection of dry waste and arranging for their disposal monthly once by collecting through scrap-vendors which is a source of income for each & every household. This was carried out on an experimental basis in Jeppu & Mangala Nagar areas. Abhishek V S, Rathna Alva, Bhanumathi, Yashoda Rai, Tejaswini & others participated in this.
Rakesh Jayaram Suvarna, Praveen Shetty, Yogish Kayarthadka, Punith Poojari, Satish Kenkanaje, Mokshitha H P & many others actively participated in this Abhiyan.
MRPL & Nitte Institutions are sponsoring the drive.
Swami Chidambarananda (Chief Convener)
Contact – Swami Ekagamyanandaji, Convener
Ramakrishna Mission Swacchata Abhiyan
Tel: 9448353162 for more details
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