Mangaluru : Large number of activists, students and professionals turned up for the Swachch Mangaluru programme organised by the Ramakrishna Mission near the Kadri Park on Sunday. The Ramakrishna Mission has been conducting the programme every Sunday for the last three months as part of the Swachch Bharat Abhiyan.

Sunday’s programme got added colour with the participation of Union Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan.

The Minister’s participation led to elected representatives and officials participating in the programme. MP Nalin Kumar Kateel, MLA J.R. Lobo, MLC Ganesh Karnik and Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemical Limited Managing Director H. Kumar joined hands in cleaning up the area.

Students from the Government College, Car Street, took part along with other people in the clean-up drive. These students have been part of the programme for the last nine weeks.

Volunteers from Amal Bharat, a group of volunteers from Mata Amritanandamayi Math, group of artists under the banner Isiri and employees from Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited were part of the drive.

The activity started with clearing of plastic bottles and other waste thrown along the compound wall of the circuit house.

Ruby and other artists from Isiri took the task of repainting and decorating the old bus stop with graffiti to give it the feel of a tree.

Another group of volunteers cleared vehicles damaged in accidents placed by the police near the bus stop. They also removed shrubs and cleaned up the area to make space for parking vehicles and create a small garden. Separate sets of people went in different directions from the circuit house junction to clean the roads.

Students from Balikashrama in Ramakrishna Mission distributed pamphlets about the cleanliness task. The programme started at 7.30 a.m. and went on till 10.30 a.m.

Lauding the initiative taken by the Ramakrishna Mission, Mr. Pradhan said it was only in a few places that organisations had taken forward the objective of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Such initiatives would lead to mass awakening on cleanliness.

“If society gets awakened, we can achieve higher goals,” he said. He asked MRPL employees to take up the task of cleaning Mangaluru and bring the city the fame of being the cleanest in the country.

Apart from sporting a yellow T-shirt and white camp, each of the 60 employees from Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited participating in the Swachch Mangalore programme on Sunday in Kadri had in brought their “Passport to Swachch Bharath Abhiyan”.

This booklet, which looks similar to a Passport, is a document in which the employee will record cleanliness campaigns conducted during a month. “We have been given a target of carrying out cleanliness campaign for 100 hours in a year,” said Konduri Lakshminarayana, the Group General Manager (HR) of MRPL.

These passports have been issued to around 250 employees, who have been divided into group of 30. Each group will be holding cleaning activity on a Sunday in places around the MRPL such as Bala, Kuthethur, Katipalla and Chelyar. “Since October 2014, I have done cleaning activity for 42 hours,” Mr. Lakshminarayana said. They will associate with the School of Social Work in carrying out awareness campaigns about cleanliness in the areas around the refinery, he added.