Udupi, 16 Aug 2017: As many as 200 volunteers from several communities and organizations gathered together for a "Cleanliness Drive" on the occasion of India’s 71st Independence Day Celebrations. This was organized to create awareness about the need of maintaining a clean and green environment. It was not just awareness but people got into action for about 3 hours.
The following organizations or Communities took part in this unique Abhiyaan.
Faithful of St Antony Church, Kuntalnagar; Sarvajanika Ganeshotsava Samithi, Dendoorkatte;Manipura Grama Panchayat; Jumma Masjid, Manipura; Sarvadharma Sauharda Samithi, Kuntalnagar; CSI Chruch, Manipura; Rotary Club, Manipura; Navodaya Mitra Mandali, Manipura; Dharmasthala Grameena Abhivridhi Sangha and Narayanaguru Mitra Mandali.
Guests present were: Smt Geetha Rama - Manipura Panchayat President; Fr Denis D’Sa, PP, Sri Sakarama Shetty, President, Sarvajanika Ganeshotsava Samithi, Moofer Hamid, President Jumma Masjid; Joseph Kunder, member CSI; Advocate Krishnaraj Acharya; Sri Gururaj Bhat; Smt Ida Gibba D’Souza, Sri Mohammed Shareef; Smt Asha Shekar; Sri Annappa Poojari, Sri Raghu Poojari, Sri Chandrashekar Salian, Rotary President, Sri Vincent D’Souza, Vice President, Kuntalnagar Church and 200 volunteers from all communities
Fr Denis adminstered the oath "Nava Bharatha Sankalpa": to make the local grama plastic free, waste free, hunger free, corruption free, terror free, communal free and to make this place a community of love and respect for all faiths, people, culture and language. All took the oath to keep the surroundings clean and green hereafter.
Fr Denis said that when our hearts, minds and environment are clean then certainly it will lead to a clean and hatred free society. Heart and mind are the source of all good or evil. Let’s keep them clean first; all else will fall in line automatically. He also said that God and our ancestors have given us this mother earth, our common home (Bharath Maatha) and we have an obligation to hand over it to the next generation as it has been handed over to us, clean, green and pollution free. Let us resolve to do so, right now.
The abhiyaan was from Dendoorkatte to Manipura; Dendoorkatte to Kuntalnagar and Dendoorkatte till Kalmanje.
The beauty of this program was that the volunteers were from all communities; all worked with one mind and heart.
The route itself was inter-religious: we passed by the Panchayat Office, a temple, a Catholic Church, a CSI Church, a Masjid and a Rotary Club.
Sri Krishnaraj, Sri Sakaram Shetty and Sri Chandrashekar Salian spoke on the occasion.