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The ‘Swacch Mangaluru Abhiyan’ will be holding the 40th drive in Mangaladevi, near the Ramakrishna Mission Ashram on February 14.

The drive was launched by the Ramakrishna Mission in Mangaluru on February 1, 2015, in response to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call for Swacch Bharath Abhiyan.

Ramakrishna Mission (Mangaluru) Secretary Swami Jithakamananda told reporters at a press meet on the Ashram premises on Wednesday that the Union Minister for Urban Development M Venkaiah Naidu would be the chief guest for the 40th drive while Nitte University Chancellor N Vinay Hegde will be the special invitee. MLC Capt Ganesh Karnik, MP Nalin Kumar Kateel, MLA J R Lobo, MRPL MD H Kumar and MRPL CGM K Lakshminarayana will be guests, he informed.

The seer said that although thousands of volunteers- besides students, youngsters and devotees – took part in the 39 drives towards making Mangaluru a cleaner City, the efforts were only the beginning. “It may, in fact, take generations, to Mangaluru cleaner,” he said, and added that he was happy that the Ashram had succeeded in creating a sense of awareness among the people of Mangaluru regarding cleanliness. “The Ashram maintained creating awareness about cleanliness among the public – rather than just sweeping the streets clean – as a priority, during the Abhiyan,” the seer explained.

Along with the cleaning task, the Abhiyan undertook some minor civil works benefiting the general public, like relaying interlock tiles on footpaths, minor repair of roads, bus shelters, painting direction or sign boards, etc.

“During the Abhiyan, the volunteers also distributed handouts to thousands of households in the locality to spread awareness,” he recalled.

2nd phase
Swami Jithakamananda said that the Ashram is planning to take up the second phase of the Abhiyan from October 2, 2016 – which would comprise 400 Abhiyans with 40 groups of people cleaning different parts of the City over a period of one year.

“As it would require a lot of preparation, it will take some time before starting the project in October 2016,” he informed.

When the reporters asked MLC Capt Ganesh Karnik why he did not raise the issue of disfiguring the walls cleaned during the cleanliness drive at the MCC Council meets, Capt Karnik promised to take up the issue, but did not said when he would so.

It may be noted that on many occasions, soon after cleaning the walls, a few associations or film crew put up posters on the walls thus disfiguring the walls, which is also an offence. As a part of the 40th week programme, the Ashram would also honour the dedicated volunteers who have been part of the drives all through the year.

Mangaluru Airport former director M R Vasudeva, Dr Satheesh Rao, youth leader Dilraj Alva, syndicate member Harish Achar, trade union leader Suresh Shetty and others were present