Yamuna cleaning campaign kicks off ahead of Chhat Puja

New Delhi: Ahead of upcoming ‘Chhat Puja’ next month, ministry of water resources, river development and ga-nga rejuvenation organised a ‘shram daan’ (volunteer service) event on Monday puja ghat at ITO along river Yamuna in the national capital.

The focus during the drive remained on freeing the ghat from any kind of solid waste. After adopting the Chhat ghat along river Yamuna in Delhi for regular cleaning, WAPCOS Ltd, a PSU under the government has been conducting regular cleaning drives at the ghat which is also thronged every year by lakhs of visitors during auspicious occasion of Chhat Puja.

The cleanliness drive was part of the ongoing ‘Swacchta Hi Sewa’ campaign held from Septemb-er 15 to October 2. The cleanliness drive began at 9 am today, during which volunteers from the ministry led by secretary U.P. Singh cleaned the Chhat ghat of plastic and other solid waste.  

Additional secretary T. Rajeshwari, joint secretaries of the ministry, Nitishwar Kumar and Akhil Kumar and CMD, WAPCOS, R.K. Gupta also participated in the event besides more than 100 officials from different department of the ministry.  

“The Chhat Ghat has seen improvement in ter-ms of cleanliness after WAPCOS took the task of cleaning it on a regular basis. While I thank all who participated in the event today, I urge them to spread the message of kee-ping our rivers and surroundings clean as involv-ement of each and every one of us is imperative in achieving this task,” said secretary, U.P. Singh.

A similar Shram Daan was also organised by Nat-ional Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) at Kalindi Kunj ghat on Monday. The NMCG has also been organising regular cleaning activities at Kalindi Kunj ghat in South Delhi.