District admn’s gesture for city’s lifeline

Weeklong ‘Gomti Swacchata Abhiyan’ gets underway. Volunteers from several departments pitch in

The stretch from Boat Club to Hanuman Setu - often considered as the most polluted one on the banks of river Gomti - witnessed a pleasant change when officials from the administration launched an extensive cleanliness drive here on Friday.

Announcing the weeklong ‘Gomti Swacchata Abhiyan’ in the morning, district magistrate Raj Shekhar said: “The Gomti is considered to be the lifeline of the state capital. Come, let’s take an initiative and make it clean. I request you all to join us in this endeavour that aims to infuse fresh life into the river.”

THE ADMINISTRATION ALSO PRESSED INTO SERVICE 10 BOATS FROM THE IRRIGATION DEPARTMENT TO ASSIST THE VOLUNTEERS IN THE CLEAN DRIVE

Apart from the administration officials including the DM, the drive saw participation of other departments like LMC, Panchayati Raj department, health department and others. The maximum number of volunteers (300) was from the Panchayati Raj department.

Others from civil defence, forest department and boat club also joined in taking the number of volunteers to 600.

The administration also roped in 10 boats from the irrigation department and JCB machines to assist the volunteers in the clean drive. During the day, the volunteers cleaned a major part of the stretch while the remaining would be sanitised in the next few days.

“Cleaning the entire stretch in a day is a cumbersome job. We have cleaned a huge chunk of it. We have also asked the irrigation department to clean the watercress on the entire stretch. I am sure we will be able to cover the entire stretch in the next six days of the drive,” said the DM.