Mangaluru: Ramakrishna Mission held its 34th Swacch Mangaluru Abhiyan in Kunjathbail and Marakada area here on January 10.
Prior to the abhiyan, a stage programme was held at the Marakada Government School on the theme, “Swacch Kunjathbail for Swacch Mangaluru”. Swami JItakamanandaji, President, Ramakrishna Math, Mangaluru presided over the programme and highlighted the significance of cleanliness and its awareness in the public. Local corporators, Harinath and Mohammad jointly flagged off the 34th Swacch Mangaluru Abhiyan in the presence of the Swamiji and other eminent personalities.
Former Principal, Government First Grade College, Car Street K Radhakrishna, Tara Rao, Vittaldas Prabhu, Students of SVS College, Bantwal under the leadership of Bharathi Bhat, Lecturer, volunteers from Nivedita Balaga, Students from GFGC, Car Street and others participated in the drive. Prof Mahesh K B, Satish Bhat, Sujith Pratap, Dr Satish Rao, Ramkumar Bekal, Suresh Shetty, Dilraj Alva and several others were present. Students of Govt. School and Noble School at Marakada also took active part in the Abhiyan. About 400 volunteers participated in the Abhiyan.
Volunteers under the leadership of Swami and Vasanth Kumar Perla of AIR cleaned Kunjathbail busstand. Posters stuck on the walls of the bus shelters were removed and the walls were repainted giving a fresh new look.
The roads, foot paths and the road dividers in the area were thoroughly cleaned by the volunteers off the weeds. Compound walls were also cleaned.
Large vacant land in the premises of Marakada Government school was neglected for years together and the heavily grown weeds and long grass formed a nice shelter for serpents and other animals thus threatening the students of the school. On request from the school development board the area was fully cleared and cleaned using grass cutting machine, JCB and tipper.
Volunteers distributed handbills on Swacch Mangaluru Abhiyan to more than 1000 households to generate awareness among the locals in the area.
MRPL, Principal Patron of the event sponsored the drive.