Bhubaneswar: With a view to keeping its beauty intact by preserving its heritage value, the Bhubaneswar civic administration Saturday decided to organise a massive cleanliness drive in Old Town area (Ekamra Kshetra) Sunday morning. The area drew over lakhs of devotees from across the state Friday on the occasion of Maha Shivratri.
The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC), Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) and Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited (BSCL) have decided to organise the mega cleanliness drive in the entire Ekamra Kshetra under ‘Mu Safaiwala’ campaign to clean up the arteries and sub-arteries of the area.
The sanitation exercise will begin at 7am and conclude at 10am and the city authorities have urged everyone to join in order to make the initiative a success. More than 500 people, including staff of BMC, BDA and BSCL, NGOs, school and college students, Safai Karmacharis (sanitation workers), among others will be engaged in the programme.
Besides, celebrities, especially renowned personalities from the Old Town area, including noted writer Anant Mohapatra and writer-historian Anil Dhir are also joining the event to encourage and motivate people participating in the cleanliness exercise.
According to the plan of action, the participants will be congregated in front of Lingaraj temple before 7am and later the participants will be divided into five teams to pick up trash in the area.
The drive will cover various areas like the 2.5-km Rath Road from Lingaraj temple to Mausima Square, Bindu Sagar, Giani Zail Singh Road, among others.
“The aim is to launch an initiative which will not only help in cleaning up the city – one spot at a time – but also create awareness among citizens to keep their environment and surroundings clean,” said BMC Commissioner, Prem Chandra Chaudhary, who is also the Vice-Chairman of BDA and CEO BSCL, after chairing a meeting in this regard at BDA Conference Hall, Saturday.
Urging everyone to join the cleanliness drive, he also added, “Through the event, we are planning to spread awareness about the plastic ban, segregation of waste and sanitation in order to beautify the City and boost its image globally.”
After the clean-up programme, volunteers will hand over the waste to civic officials, who will further segregate it into wet and dry waste.
It’s worth mentioning here that the state government has recently announced a package for revival and preservation of the heritage value and grandeur of Lingaraj temple and its surroundings on 66-acre of land.
The package for Ekamra Kshetra in the first phase includes Outer Access Road Development, Lingaraj Entry Plaza, Bindu Sagar revival plan, parking space, Lingaraj Heritage Complex, development of amenities for Kedar Gouri-Mukteswar complex, Heritage e-auto project, relocation projects and heritage interpretation centre.