Mangaluru: A new bus shelter built as part of 39th Swachhata Abhiyan Shramadan of Ramakrishna Mission was inaugurated near the Public Works Department office at Bondel on Sunday.

Till now, passengers waiting for buses had to stand under the shade of a peepal tree there. The shelter was built on the request of locals. It has a roof, seats, and tiled floor. The volunteers cleaned the surroundings of the shelter. Sand accumulated on the airport road obstructing vehicles was removed. Drains were cleared of garbage. A spot that was littered with garbage and heaps of sand was also cleared. Overgrown weeds and grass were removed from near Ashwattha Katte, Bondel, while heaps of sand lying on the footpath were also removed. Illegal banners on the road too were brought down.

Last Sunday, Shramadan was carried out at Bikarnakatte and garbage was cleared. It was followed by volunteers visiting several fast food shops and urging people not to litter and help in maintaining cleanliness in the city. Since then, volunteers have been monitoring the area daily to check if the shop vendors are littering.

They have successfully stopped hotel staff from throwing out garbage and dirt and have forced them to clean the spot littered by them, a release from Ramakrishna Mutt said.

The volunteers of the Abhiyan are visiting households and informing people about the need for segregation of waste. They are also informing them how to compost the wet waste generated in their house by using pot-compost and how to use the manure thus produced in their gardens.

The volunteers are distributing bags for collection of dry waste and arranging for their disposal monthly once by collection through scrap vendors. This was carried out in Jeppu and Mangala Nagar areas on Sunday, the release said.