Swacchata Abhiyan: Final phase from Dec 2

The fifth and the final phase of Swacchata Abhiyan by Ramakrishna Mission, Mangaluru, will be flagged off on December 2.

The launching ceremony will be held on the Ramakrishna Mutt premises at Mangaladevi, Mangaluru, at 8 am.

Swami Jitakamananda, secretary of the Ramakrishna Mission Mangaluru unit, who addressed reporters at the Mutt on Thursday, said that Shivapremananda, secretary of the Ramakrishna Ashrama, Jalpaiguri unit, will launch the campaign. Nitte Education Trust chairman N Vinay Hegde will be the chief guest.

“Deputy Commissioner Sasikanth Senthil will flag off the voluntary cleanliness drive. MRPL Managing Director Venkatesh M, Mangaluru South MLA D Vedavyas Kamath and former MLC Capt Ganesh Karnik will be present,” he added.

Jitakamananda said the fifth phase will continue till October 2, 2019, which coincides with the conclusion of the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

A seminar on Swacch Soch will be launched on the Ramakrishna Mission premises at 9 am on December 4 by B H V Prasad, general manager of MRPL Group. Nitte University Pro Chancellor Vishal Hegde will be chief guest, said Jitakamananda.

“The inaugural function will be followed by two interactive sessions on ‘Transforming Self to Transform Society’ by the Vivekananda Institute of Human Excellence, Hyderabad, director Swami Bodhamayananda, and corporate trainer Dr Vivek Modi on ‘Practicality of Purity in Modern Times’,” the seer added.

Five dimensions

Swami Ekagamyananda said, “Swaccha Samparka Abhiyan, Swacch Mangaluru for Swacch Bharath Shramadan, Swacch Manas, Swacch Soch and Swacch Gram Abhiyan are the five dimesions of the fifth phase of the campaign.”

He explained that the Mangaluru City Corporation Mayor K Bhaskar Moily will launch the Swacchata Samparka Abhiyan on December 2. “Under this campaign, 500 groups comprising volunteers will conduct 300 Swacchata awareness campaigns in different parts of the city every evening for 90 minutes. Demonstration on pot compost will be presented as a part of the campaign. There are also plans to distribute 5,000 pot compost units to interested citizens,” he added.

“Under ‘Swacch Mangaluru for Swacch Bharath Shramadan’, about three hours of Shramadan will be carried out for the next 44 weeks in different parts of the city. About 200 volunteers will take part. ‘Swacch Manas’ is directed towards creating awareness among students in 100 schools for five months starting June 2019 and 100 students each school will be trained to be ‘Swacch Ambassadors’.

“The ‘Swacch Soch’ seminars and workshops will be conducted in 50 colleges of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts between December 2018 and February 2019. The resource persons will interact with the youth. University-level and district-level seminars and paper presentations will be held in this connection,” said Ekagamyananda.

‘Udupi too’

Speaking further Ekagamyananda said, “The ‘Swacch Gram Abhiyan’ will be carried out this time in Udupi district as well. During the last phase, the campaign was carried out in 100 villages of Dakshina Kannada. This time, the campaign will be expanded to 100 more villages. Also, 2,000 Abhiyans will be carried out in 200 villages of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi with the support and cooperation of the Zilla Panchayats and the district administrations. About 100 people from each village will be selected and one of them will be made convener to coordinate the cleanliness drives once in a month for the next 10 month starting from December 2018. Ramakrishna Mission will provide cleaning equipment.”