South Western Railway is observing Swachhta Pakhwara, cleanliness fortnight, in all the stations, offices and other property in its jurisdiction.
General Manager Sanjeev Kishore launched Swachhta Pakhwara by administering Swachhata Pledge to officers and staff in Bengaluru on Saturday.
Swachhta Pakhwara is a fortnight-long drive observed to ensure mass participation of citizens in cleanliness and hygiene activities with an aim to transform Swachch Bharat into a citizen’s movement.
The programme commenced with a signature campaign and walkathon on KSR Bengaluru Railway Station premises lead by the General Manager.
The first day was observed as Swachh Awareness Day during which awareness was created among the people about the importance of cleanliness and about the ban on single-use plastic on railway premises.
Mr. Kishore inspected KSR Bengaluru Railway Station and appealed to passengers to use cloth bags in place of plastic bags to save the environment from pollution.
The Railways Bharat Scout and Guides unit conducted a street play to sensitise passengers to cleanliness on railway premises.
An innovative Plastic Asura walked around the station premises, creating awareness on dangers of single-use plastic and encouraging passengers and the public to give up plastic.
Mr. Kishore appreciated the sculpture of Earth set up at the railway station with single-use plastic bottles. Environment and House Keeping Branch of Bengaluru Division made this sculpture using 18 kg waste plastic bottles collected from KSR Bengaluru Station in just 10 hours.
Chief Mechanical Engineer (Environment and House Keeping) Ajay Singh, Divisional Railway Manager, Bengaluru Division, Yogesh Mohan and other senior officers were present.
Zonal president, South Western Railway Women’s Welfare Organization, Vandana Srivastava, division president Shikha Agarwal and other members of the organisation also participated in the event.
Swachhata Pakhwara has been launched in Mysuru and Hubballi divisions also. Swachhata Pledges were administered at various locations of South Western Railway.
Field units, frontline staff at railway stations are engaged in awareness drives to sensitise railway passengers to help keep railways clean and green, said a release from Chief Public Relations Officer Aneesh Hegde.
