Hyderabad: The concept is literally “sweeping” the country right now and the first few to join the Clean India Campaign in the city were out early with their brooms on Thursday.
Leading the campaign was the NGO Animal Rehabilitation and Protection Front, which sent volunteers at the zoo. As part of its drive, ARPF kick-started the cleaning initiative to the zoo.
Nihar Parulekar, head of ARPF and the director of the Zoo Corps says, “There are many free-grazing deer that roam the park at night. When visitors litter the place, the deer eat the plastic and this could kill them. We have 30 volunteers who will help clean the zoo,” says Nihar.
Close on the NGO’s heels were the students and staff from the University of Hyderabad. They not only took an oath of cleanliness and cleaned up the varsity, they also started the green-bucket initiative, headed by Venkata Ramana, former dean of the School of Management. “We at the university took the official oath today, but the campaign was initiated on Sunday itself,” says Ramana, adding, “We also came up with the idea of Shramdaan. Where we not only clean up the place, but plant trees as well. We are planning to inculcate environmental ownership.”
EFLU too participated in the campaign, where around 1,000 participants students and staff took an oath of cleanliness.
At the Manthan talk on Thursday, a member from the audience got up when AAP’s Yoginder Yadav was replying to questions. “This is not a question as much as a suggestion,” the young man began. “While the whole of India is marking Swachh Bharat, why is it that I see water bottles thrown everywhere? I request everyone to please pick them and dispose of them properly.”
He also questioned the organisers as to why a water filter or cooler couldn’t be organised instead of plastic bottles.
A few tech companies from the city took part in the campaign as well, one such company was Tech Mahindra, where employees planted a few trees in the city.
T’town is still missing in fight against dirt though actor Sushanth tweeted, “Let’s do our bit to keep our surroundings clean.”
