CII to launch cleanliness drive on October 2

VARANASI: The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) would organize a cleanliness drive and a cyclathon on October 2 in Varanasi on the completion of two years of launch of the Swachh Bharat campaign. CII would be organizing these events as a part of its 'India@75' initiative. Members of cleanliness warrior Temsutula Imsong's Misson Parijat and students of Banaras Hindu University (BHU) would also be participating in the events.
About 500 volunteers are expected to participate in the cyclathon that would start from BHU and cover various areas in the city including Cantonment and Diesel Locomotive Works .
Talking to TOI on Thursday, Imsong said, "CII's initiative envisions how our country should be in its 75th year of independence." She further emphasized on the role individuals can play to make the city cleaner by being responsible citizens.
Imsong and her team had launched Mission Prabhu Ghat in March 2015 wherein her team of volunteers had carried out cleanliness drives at Prabhu Ghat. Their efforts were also lauded by prime minister Narendra Modi on his official Twitter handle on April 1. Currently her team is busy cleaning the Babua Pandey and Pandey ghats as a part of Mission Parijat and have also taken up cleaning of Gauri and Sonbhadra kunds.
Despite the wide array of efforts taken to keep the Varanasi clean, the prime minister's parliamentary constituency fared badly in the Swachh Bharat test (418 out of 476 cities). It was also assessed one of the dirtiest cities in the Swachh Survekshan (65 out of 73 cities). The city was included in the'Slow Movers' categorized because of poor waste management.
Even as overflowing garbage dumps and scattered debris are a regular sight on the roads across the city, officials of Varanasi Municipal Corporation (VMC) are gearing up for the second round of Swachh Survekshan, the results of which will be announced in February 2017. The survey would be conducted from January 4.
Rajkumar Agrawal who is heading the city support unit of Swachh Bharat Mission (urban), said, "A methodological strategy has been worked out for different parameters including service level performance, citizen feedback and independent observation. This time the weightage of citizen's feedback has been increased to 30% ,".
On being asked about the changes made in city's waste management since last year, Agarwal said, "Unlike earlier, door to door garbage collection has started in 64 of 90 wards with the support of private firms . The solid waste management plant in Karsada that was not functional is now partially functional. A campaign will be initiated from the first week of October to sensitize locals and exhort them to keep the city clean. For processing and disposal, as many as 10 decentralized waste-to-energy units funded by Indian Oil are to come up in various areas. This will be the first such unit in the country,".