Kalladka Bhat, swamijis among 800 take part in Swacch Mangaluru Abhiyan

Mangaluru, Feb 17: The 40th Swacch Mangaluru Abhiyan was held in the Mangaladevi area in the coastal city recently wherein RSS leader and Convener and Sri Rama Vidya Kendra, Kalladka Prabhakar Bhat among others participated in the cleanliness drive.

A small stage programme was also organized at the venue. Chief guests Swami Srikantanandaji, Adhyaksha, Ramakrishna Mutt, Pune and Mr Bhat were the chief guests. Swami Jitakamanandaji, President, Ramakrishna Mutt, Mangaluru welcomed the guests.

Capt. Ganesh Karnik briefed about the 40 weeks’ Swaccha Mangaluru Abhiyan. Swami Srikantanandaji recited a poem he had written on Swacch Bharath and lauded the efforts of Ramakrishna Mission in this regard and equated keeping motherland clean with the worship of the Lord.

Mr Bhat appreciated the initiative taken by Ramakrishna Mission in this regard and applauded the sustained and dedicated efforts of the volunteers in making it successful.

About 800 volunteers were divided into 11 groups and were given information and sent to different areas for cleaning:

1. Employees from MCF under their director Prabhakar Rao cleaned the area from Marnamikatta to Nandigudda.

2. Employees of HDFC Bank under Prashanth Uparangala cleaned the area from Cascia High school to Marnamikatta

3. Volunteers from Hindu Warriors WhatsApp Group under the leadership of Shivu Puttur Near Marnamikatta Railway Bridge

4. Members of Kalki Manava Seva Samiti under Ganesh Bangera and Manohar Prabhu cleaned the Mangalanagar area.

5. Students from Sahyadri Engineering college under the leadership of Srilatha, Lecturer cleaned the Mangaladevi road.

6. Members of I T Dealers association cleaned the area from Mangaladevi Temple towards Ramakrishna Math.

7. Members of Nivedita Balaga under the guidance of Vijayalakshmi cleaned the Mangaladevi Temple area.

8. Members of Bhagini Samaj under the guidance of Vajra Rao cleaned the Jeppu area.

9. Members of Stri Shakti Sangha under the leadership of Smt. Rathna Alva cleaned the Jeppu Market area.

10. Members of Art of Living under the leadership of Sadashiv Kamath cleaned the Mangaladevi Car street.

11. Students from Govt. First Grade College, Car street under the leadership of Sri Sheshappa Amin, Lecturer and Sri Mahesh K B collected the heaps of garbage from all these areas and loaded them in the truck for segregation and disposal.

Dilraj Alva, Sujith Pratap, Vittaldas Prabhu, Premananda Shetty, Harish Achar, Ramkumar Bekal, Shubhoday Alva, Umanath Kotekar and several other eminent persons were present.

After the cleanliness drive all the volunteers had their breakfast in Ramakrishna Math. Later in the Thanks giving ceremony about 40 institutional representatives who joined in the Swacch Mangaluru Abhiyan were recognized and presented with memento as token of respect by Sri Venkaiah Naidu. Hon. Minister for Urban Development, Govt. of India.

With this the first phase of 40 abhiyans drew to an end. In the second phase about 400 cleanliness drives will be planned and executed in different parts of the city.

Volunteers also distributed handbills on Swacch Mangaluru Abhiyan to generate awareness among the localites in the area. MRPL, Principal Patron of the event sponsored the drive.