Daijiworld Media Network- Mangaluru (ANK)
Mangaluru Jun 12: The novel initiative by Ramakrishna Mission's 400 cleanliness drive to clean the city under Swacch Mangaluru Abhiyan successfully came to an end here at Ramakrishna Math Mangaldevi on Sunday June 11.
Speaking on the occasion, president of Ramakrishna Math Mangaluru Swami Jithakamananda said, “We succeeded in completing 400 cleanliness drive in the past couple of years. It was not an easy job to complete 400 cleanliness drives but the hard work put up by our volunteers and members paid off in successfully completing the project.”
“All through the campaign, our motive was to create awareness in society about cleanliness and through this drive we could reach maximum number of people. Over 60 groups and organizations voluntarily joined hands in this mission to clean Mangaluru.”
“Our next step now is to take this drive to panchayat level and in village area and involve people to clean their surroundings. It was good to see people of all age groups from kids to elderly and from all professions participate in this drive. I think we were able to gather over 6,000 volunteers for this drive. I thank all the volunteers and supporters for making this mission successful.”
“Last year, home minister Dr G Parameshwar had inaugurated ‘Arpana’ programme to distribute clothes to the poor beneficiaries of rural areas. Under this programme, 6,000 beneficiaries were identified from the rural areas of Puttur and Sullia and given clothes. This year, the math has plans to reach up to 20,000 beneficiaries from rural areas of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi. During the occasion Swami Jithakamananda and Swami Gautamanandaji distributed clothes to the beneficiaries.
Vice president of Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission Beloor Math West Bengal Swami Gautamanandaji said, “Cleanliness is our priority. As per our culture and yoga shashtra, we should look to keeping our surroundings clean and tidy. We have nearly 170 branches across the country and all the branches have contributed toward swacch bharath abhiyan in their own way, but I feel Mangaluru Ramakrishna mission is one step ahead as they have inspired many by taking this initiative where over 4,000 representatives have joined hands. Usually some may do only 100 cleanliness drives but Mangaluru Ramakrishna Mission is way forward by conducting 400 cleanliness drives which is appreciable.”
MLC Capt Ganesh Karnik said, “During the pre-independence era, Mahatma Gandhiji stressed upon cleanliness but after independence we lost the way to keeping our surroundings clean. We even polluted water and rivers. Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced Swacch Bharath Abhiyaan with the motive to keep the country clean by 2019 to mark Mahatma Gandhiji's 150th birth anniversary. I think Ramakrishna Mission is at the forefront by contributing in swacch abhiyan to a clean Mangaluru city. During the cleanliness drive, 69 groups were formed and succeeded in conducting 400 cleanliness drives. This novel initiative by Ramakrishna mission has burgeoned all over the state.”
MP Nalin Kumar Kateel, chancellor of NITTE University N Vinay Hegde, director finance MRPL A K Sahoo and others were present.