Krishna Suddhi begins in massive way

Vijayawada: The Krishna district administration started the cleaning of river Krishna and three other canals in a massive programme involving participation of hundreds of officials from various departments, employees, workers, students, representatives of NGOs at nearly 10 places on the first day on Thursday.

The district administration under the supervision of Collector B Imtiaz, Commissioner of Police Dwaraka Tirumala Rao and Municipal Commissioner M Rama Rao started the cleaning programme at the Skew Bridge at Ramalingeswara Nagar.

Dozens of JCBs, poclainers, trucks and tractors were roped into service to remove and shift the garbage, waste plastic materials from the Krishna river and three other canals. Thousands of tonnes of plastic materials and garbage was piled up to six kilometers in Krishna river from Prakasam barrage and three canals in the city. The major cleaning programme is named as 'Krishnamma Suddhi' and will be held two days on Thursday and Friday.

Responding to the call given by the district officials, hundreds of students, NGOs and others enthusiastically participated in the cleaning event that took place near Bandar locks, Alankar centre, Gandhi Nagar and other parts of the city in three canals.

Trucks of garbage and waste plastic covers, glasses and other materials were shifted to dumping yards.

Speaking on the occasion, District Collector Md Imtiaz said he was delighted to participate in the Krishna river cleaning programme. He said Krishna river is supplying drinking water to lakhs of people in 20 mandals in the district and irrigating lands in Delta region. He stressed upon the need to check pollution in the water bodies.

Commissioner of Police Dwaraka Tirumala Rao said the police department was also participating in the cleaning programme. He said people are healthy when they consume clean drinking water. Joint Collector Krutika Shukla, Municipal Commissioner M Rama Rao, Joint Collector-2 P Babu Rao, tourism department officer Velaga Joshi, irrigation superintending engineer A V L N Chowdary and other officials from revenue, R and B, fisheries, irrigation, Panchayat Raj, Municipal Corporation of Vijayawada participated.

The cleaning programme will continue on Friday also. Awareness was created among people living along the Krishna river in Ramalingeswar Nagar and three canals in the city.