Mangaluru : The 38th Shramadan of Ramakrishna Mission Swachata Abhiyan was organized below Kuntikana flyover & surrounding areas on 1st July from 7.30 am to 10 am. The Shramadan was jointly flagged off by Dr Manjunath Revankar, President, Canara Builders Association, Mangalore & Sri Santosh Shet, President, Rotary Club, Mangalore Central in the presence of Swami Jitakamanandaji. Rotarian Iliyas Santhos, Umakanth Suvarna, Mohan Kottari, Praveen Raveendran & several others were present on the occasion.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr Manjunath Revankar said, “In spite of lot of awareness being generated among the local public it is unfortunate that people still litter in public places. This can stop only if local administrations impose heavy fine on such individuals. We hope in the days ahead local administrations will think proactively and take necessary steps in this direction.” Santosh Shet & Iliyas Santhos spoke and congratulated the volunteers for their dedication and zealous efforts in the Abhiyan.
Cleanliness: Shramadan was carried out below the flyover on the Kuntikana National Highway. Swamijis and dignitaries symbolically cleaned area under the flyover with brooms. Volunteers were divided into three groups. One group cleaned the road sides and the parking lots in the area. Another group removed the posters stuck on the walls of the pillars of the flyover and cleaned. Another group led by Sudhir Vamanjoor, Chethana cleaned the heaps of stinking garbage lying beside the bus shelter. Souraj Mangalore & Uday K P and others removed dangerous waste & garbage with lot of efforts. Volunteers under the guidance of Prof. Sheshappa Amin cleaned the Kuntikana Auto Stand, road leading towards Lohith Nagar, and Derebail. Kamalaksha Pai, Aniruddh Nayak & others cleaned the adjoining drains and removed heaps of garbage from them. Using Grass cutting machine overgrown weeds were removed from the flyover and surrounding region. To remove the illegal flex being pasted in the city, efforts were made to contact the dealers and owners and urge them to cooperate in keeping the city clean. Nearly 500 banners and flex hoardings were removed. P N Bhat, Raghunath Acharya, Smitha Shenoy, Shruthi Thumbri, Chinthan D V, Vidhatri K, Nisha Nayak & many others participated in the Abhiyan.
Swacch Gram Abhiyan – Special Meeting: A special meeting was organized by Ramakrishna Mission in association with D K Zilla Panchayat regarding Swacch Gram Abhiyan. Presidents, Vice Presidents & Panchayat Development Officers of villages belonging to Mangalore & Bantwala Taluks attended the meeting. Dr M R Ravi, CEO, DK Zilla Panchayat was present as chief guest and spoke on the significance of Swacch Gram Abhiyan. He said, “Swacch Gram Abhiyan conducted by Ramakrishna Mission is a model project. This exemplifies how taking help & support from institutions & public support, government can successfully implement people-friendly projects. It is duty of each & every individual to beautify and clean his surroundings and leave this as a rich legacy to the future generations. This is social responsibility. This leads to community welfare. Each and every village and Taluk of Dakshina Kannada Dist. should take part in this Abhiyan.
Swami Jitakamanandaji presided over the meeting. Smt. Manjula, Coordinator, Swacch Bharath Mission, DK Dist. delivered the keynote address. Umanath kotekar welcomed the gathering. Swami Ekagamyanandaji proposed vote of thanks. Naveen Konaje compeered. More than 150 officials and elected representatives from different villages attended the meeting. This was followed by interaction and demonstration of pot-compost. MRPL & Nitte Institutions are sponsoring the drive.
We have attached few snaps of the drive along with this report. We kindly request you to publish the report along with photos and participate in our humble initiative of Swacch Bharath Abhiyan.