KOCHI:
Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is a campaign by the Government of India to keep the streets, roads and infrastructure of the country’s 4,041 statutory cities and towns and its rural areas clean.
The mission is bifurcated into sub-missions as Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (Gramin), under Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, and Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (Urban), under Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. It includes ambassadors and activities such as a run, national real-time monitoring and updates from NGOs.
The campaign was officially launched on 2 October 2014 at Rajghat, New Delhi, by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It is India’s largest ever cleanliness drive with 3 million government employees, especially school and college students from all parts of India, participating in the campaign. The objectives of Swachh Bharat are to reduce or eliminate open defecation through the construction of individual, cluster and community toilets.
In order to achieve this objective the Ministry of Shipping GOI has announced a cleaning campaign among all its departments, bodies and undertakings. The Ministry has directed all its sub-ordinate offices and central undertakings to conduct “ Swachh Bharat Abhiyan Campaign” from 15 th September to October 2 nd 2017 by arranging various befitting programs.
CSL has been actively involved in promoting the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan ever since it was announced. In order to effectively implement this particular Campaign, CSL has worked out systematic schedule of ‘Action Programs’ both within and outside the company. One of such initiative outside the company is the ‘Cleaning Operations of the Thevara Perandur Canal area and the Children’s park of Boat Jetty area’.
The ‘Cleaning Operations of Thevara Perandur Canal near the market area’ were organized on 26 September, involving NSS volunteers from SH College Thevara. More than 100 volunteers including the Principal and Teachers of the College were present on the occasion. The program was kick started with the Swachhta Message by the Director Technical Sunny Thomas of CSL. A large number of employees representing various unions from CSL also participated in the cleaning efforts.
On 27 th September, the cleaning operations were undertaken at the Children’s Park in the Boat Jetty area. NSS volunteers from St. Theresas College, Ernakulam along with their faculty members were present in large numbers. The Cleaning efforts started with an inspiring message from the General Manager (Ship Building) A.V. Sureshkumar of Cochin Shipyard Limited. A number of employees from CSL representing various Unions
and Women’s forum also actively participated in the efforts. Both these efforts were undertaken in collaboration with the Local Bodies.
