MANGALURU: Ramakrishna Mission’s 39th Swachhata Abhiyan Shramadan was organised on Airport Road at Bondel near here on Sunday. The Shramadan was jointly flagged off by Harish Joshy, former professor, St Aloysius College, and Kishan Srinivas Ammady, Infosys employee, jointly flagged off the shramadan. Balakrishna Rai, Masahiro, Satish T Yekkur, Himmat Singh, Santosh Suvarna, Deepak Melanta and others were present on the occasion.Harish Joshy said, “Environmental protection is each one’s responsibility. We are getting everything from nature. Hence we have to preserve nature. It is unfortunate that we don’t feel responsible for conserving and preserving our nature. Swachh Mangaluru Abhiyan is a welcome attempt and is creating awareness among citizens,” he said. Kishan opined, “If we just wish that we should have the cleanliness and discipline seen abroad in India too, it is not enough.”Shramadan was carried out near PWD office at Ashwatta Katte and surrounding areas. Volunteers cleaned surroundings of the bus shelter and several areas on Airport Road. Sand accumulated on the concrete road obstructing vehicles was removed. Drains were cleared off the garbage, thus enabling easy movement of water. A spot that was littered with garbage and heaps of sand was cleared. Overgrown weeds and grass were removed near Ashwattha Katte.Passengers waiting for buses had only the shade of peepal tree for roof near PWD office at Bondel before. On the request of the localites, a new bus shelter was erected on the spot and it was dedicated during the shramadan. It has all the facilities like good roof, seats and tiled ground. Dedicated efforts of Shubhoday Alva, Umanath Kotekar, Ashok Subbayya and many others were behind the creation of this public utility.On last Sunday, shramadan was carried out at Bikarnakatte and garbage was cleared. It was followed by visit to several fast food shops and urging them not to litter and help in maintaining the city clean. Since then daily, volunteers were monitoring the area to check if the shop vendors litter the area again. They have successfully stopped hotel staff from throwing garbage and dirt in the spot and have forced them to clean the spot littered by them.Volunteers cleaned a spot prone to littering near Koragajja temple between Padavinangady and Bondel church. Volunteers of Swacch Mangaluru Abhiyan visited households informing them about segregation of wet and dry waste as also how to compost the wet waste generated in their house by using pot-compost and use the manure produced in their gardens. They are also distributing bags for collection of dry waste and arranging for their disposal monthly.

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