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Campus connect: SPPU students’ clean route to celebrating Gandhi gives life to Pune’s rivers
The drive kick-started from 7 am to 10 am and volunteers cleaned 22 different spots at Mula, Mutha and Pavana riverbanks
Selecting Mahatma Gandhi as an icon of cleanliness at least 10,000 volunteers of National Service Scheme (NSS) of the Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) and 150 affiliated colleges held cleanliness drives at riverbanks across the city on October 2. The participant colleges were from Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad.
The country marked the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi on Wednesday.
The drive kick-started from 7 am to 10 am and volunteers cleaned 22 different spots at Mula, Mutha and Pavana riverbanks.
Professor Nitin Kalmalkar, vice-chancellor of SPPU, said, “This year the city witnessed heavy rains and flash floods in some parts. Due to this plastic and other garbage material was collected on the riverbanks. So our volunteers cleaned up the garbage on October 2.”
“Pune Municipal corporation (PMC) helped us to dispose off the collected garbage and also provided our volunteers’ gloves during the drive,” said Kalmalkar.
After the drive, the volunteers took an oath to stop the use of plastic goods at Shaniwarwada. Meanwhile, the PMC commissioner Saurabh Rao and other officials of SPPU and PMC visited various cleanliness drive spots in the on Wednesday morning.
One of the colleges which participated in the cleanliness drive was Christ College, Pune, wherein the NSS unit of the college cleaned the banks of Mula-Mutha near Yerwada bridge.
Sony J Chundattu, director, Christ College and Priya Wahab, NSS programme officer guided the students during the drive.
“Due to flash floods in the city, river banks are covered with plastic and garbage. The students of Christ College rendered their helping hand to PMC in the collection and proper disposal of garbage, said, Chundattu.
