Awareness rally organised on cleaning of canals

Vijayawada: As part of the Mission for Clean Krishna and Godavari canals, 5000 tons of waste materials, garbage and silt has been removed from Bandar canal, Ryves canal, Eluru canal and Budameru in Vijayawada during the past few months.

The Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) has taken special initiative to clean the canals and Budameru drain that passes through the city. As many as 4000 workers are roped in to remove the waste from the canals. The sanitation workers with the help of machinery removed the waste and shifted to other places using 250 autos and 30 compact vehicles.

The VMC organised a rally to create awareness on the cleaning of canals in the city on Thursday. The rally was flagged off near the Meesala Rajeswara Rao bridge near Pejjonipet.

Speaking on the occasion, Chief Medical officer Dr Ratnavali said the VMC is trying to create awareness among people not to dump plastic materials and other waste into canals.

She said mesh was set up on bridges at various parts of the city to prevent throwing of the waste materials into the canals. She said the Bandar canal, Ryves canal and Eluru canal water is used for drinking purposes in the downstream areas and underlined the need to keep the canals clean.

Special teams are appointed to keep vigil near the bridges and penalty also levied from the people, who throw the waste materials into the canals. She said mosquito menace is increasing in the city with obstruction of water in the side drains. She asked sanitation workers to keep the city clean to achieve the top rank in the country in Swachh Sarvekshan mission.

VMC health officers Dr Lakshminarayana, Dr Iqbal Hussain, Dr Suresh Babu, Biologist Surya Kumar, the staff and teachers of the Future Path School participated in the rally.