This citizens' group maintains a clean slate

Mysuru-based Rajeev Sneha Balaga keeps 'Clean India' drive going

The mention of Mallamma of Danapur village in Gangavathi taluk of Koppal district, in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Mann ki Baat’, a fortnight ago, brought the PM’s pet project ‘Swachch Bharat’ back in the limelight.

Several citizen groups across the nation are doing their mite to make the mission a success to coincide with the 150 birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi on October 2, 2019. However, one of them has crossed its 100th cleanliness programme on July 24 and is marching towards the 100th week programme on September 25.

With Mysuru topping the cleanest city list thrice, in the past one year, the expectations on the city and its residents are high and it is quite a challenge to retain the position. Besides the efforts of the Mysuru City Corporation (MCC), the responsibility on development organisations, social groups and every citizen is immense.

Cleanliness is being stressed on several occasions, including making it the theme for the Dasara, scheduled to begin on October 1, just a day before Gandhi Jayanti.

Representatives from various cities and states have been visiting the city to study the cleanliness module of Mysuru.

Hitting the 100 mark and sustaining the spirit for weeks together is difficult these days, with a lot of physical and mental distractions.

But, what started as a small initiative with a handful of people has grown into a movement of a couple of hundreds of volunteers. It got its name ‘H V Rajeev Sneha Balaga’ over a period of time, after one its member Rajeev, the vice president of the Karnataka State Souharda Federal Cooperative Limited, who has been a driving force of the group.

Many groups have conducted a couple of cleanliness drives — either in the initial stages of the launch of the Swachh Bharat mission or in the middle. But, the balaga will complete its 112th programme on Sunday (September 11)

Even though the balaga started a bit late, compared to other organisations, it has kept momentum and has succeeded in clocking 112 programmes, by holding special drives to mark some occasions like Ambedkar Jayanti. Many organisations started the drive on October 2, 2014, itself, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the programme. But, most of them could not retain the initial enthusiasm and the zeal.

H V Rajeev Sneha Balaga was a late beginner. It held its first drive on November 1, 2014, to mark Kannada Rajyotsava, a Saturday.

Rajeev credited group’s good track record to the commitment of its members. “Many new members are joining us, with every passing week, and many groups have merged with our group due to our track record over the past two years.

One Kumar has attended all the drives of our group, while members like Chikkanna, Basavaraj, Rajgopal, Suresh, Basavaraju and Rajgopal have missed a few drives. I too make it a point to attend the drives regularly. I may have missed a couple of programmes,” said Rajeev.

He says that the group has conducted several cleanliness drives in the colonies of the pourakarmikas and the proudest moment was taking part and sharing the experiences on NDTV’s ‘Banega Swachh India’ programme hosted by Amitabh Bachchan.