Mysureans worked hard to retain clean city tag

The efforts of pourakarmikas, various organisations and environmentalists, to maintain the beauty of the heritage city, yielded fruits.

Since the city secured the ‘Cleanest City’ tag last year, various organisations, residents and civic workers, have been striving to maintain cleanliness in the city in order to retain the tag.

Organisations like Let’s Do It Mysuru, H V Rajeev Sneha Balaga and others are organising cleanliness camps every week. The Balaga completed 75 weeks of ‘Swacch Mysuru Abhiyana’ last Sunday. The team, led by District Cooperative Union president and educationalist H V Rajeev, comprises, students, professionals, homemakers and senior citizens.

“The announcement of the award is a proud moment for the city. It is also a result of people’s effort. The Balaga will continue its effort and reach the places, where civic authorities cannot take up cleanliness drives,” said Rajiv.

But, organisations, working for the beauty of the city, feel that they have a long way to go to make the city more beautiful and clean. K S Shiva Shankar, a volunteer of Let’s Do It, said, “We are already number one, now, our responsibility has doubled.”

He says though the city has bagged the clean city tag, many people need to be educated in composting waste. Lets Do It, which has nearly 700 members, conducts educative and awareness camps about solid waste management at crowded places, apartments and residential areas.

Mysuru-Kodagu MP Pratap Simha has expressed his gratitude to the civic workers and the MCC. Simha said the credit goes to pourakarmikas and the MCC, working to maintain the beauty of the city. “Besides making us proud, the award has increased our responsibility. The cultural capital has emerged as a model for all cities in the country. The efforts of the civic workers has helped the city to retain the tag,” he said.