City stinks on cleanliness day as civic workers stay off duty

Even as organisations and individuals picked up brooms, wore gloves and participated in the Swachh Bharath campaign at some places on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti, garbage piled up at many other locations of the city.

“On one hand, the government is promoting Swachh Bharat. On the other, the city stinks and piles of garbage can be seen everywhere. It seems most pourakarmikas are on an extended weekend,” said Umakanth, a resident of Magadi Road.

The Bengaluru division of South Western Railway conducted a cleanliness campaign to mark Gandhi Jayanti and the finale of the “Swachhta Hi Seva” fortnight being observed by the Indian Railways. Officers, staff members, Scouts and Guides took out a rally from the railway station, carrying banners and placards with slogans on cleanliness. Volunteers from Eco-Watch of the Centre for Environment and Sustainable Development also took part in the campaign.

Many Bengalureans joined hands with Member of Parliament Rajeev Chandrashekar’s Namma Bengaluru Foundation (NBF) in the Swachch Bharat drive. In about 72 wards and nine lakes, citizens cleaned the garbage dumping yards and painted the walls at these places. Volunteers in Nagarabhavi were not allowed to participate in the cleanathon organised by the police as it was claimed that permission was not obtained from the BBMP, said an NBF member.

To inculcate the culture of personal hygiene and cleanliness among children, especially the 16.6 lakh children who get mid-day meals, Akshaya Patra Foundation launched Swachh Vidyarthi, Swachh Vidyalaya and Swachh Griha initiatives. A cleanliness drive was organised as part of the campaign.

Clean Metro
The BMRCL, in association with Iskcon, conducted a cleanliness drive at 21 Metro stations. About 1,000 volunteers took part in the event to clean Metro stations as well as the surrounding areas. Volunteers, carrying brooms, walked from the Iskcon temple to RMC yard, Yeshwantpur market and other areas.

They took a ride on the Metro to places like KR Market, Chickpet, Sultanpet and Banashankari. Volunteers from VMWare, an IT company, painted the JP Nagar Metro station, in association with Ugly Indians.