A one-day mass river cleaning was organised as part of Manikkal grama panchayat’s Puzhayozhukum Manikkal’ project on Sunday.
Minister for Food and Civil Supplies G.R. Anil inaugurated the clean-up at Thamarabhagam, Thycaud.
The Minister said that with waterbodies getting polluted, farm land adjacent to it was lying fallow. To overcome this, the government was trying to protect the waterbodies and undertake development that was environment-friendly. It was sa part of such efforts that Puzhayozhukum Manikkal was being implemented under the umbrella of the Haritha Keralam Mission as part of the Nava Kerala action plan with the objective of cleaning up waste from waterbodies and reviving them.
As part of the first phase of the project, 10 acres of fallow land was made cultivable, and seeds planted. A tourism project connecting Vellanikkal and Thamburatti rocks and social afforestation too had been launched.
River clean-up was launched at nine centres simultaneously. Vamanapuram MLA D.K. Murali inaugurated the clean-up at Aaliyad-Kaappikunnu bridge; district panchayat member Sheelakumari at Mandapam junction; Nava Keralam Mission coordinator T.N. Seema at Velavoor junction; former MLA Koliyakode Krishnan Nair at Vembayam junction; block panchayat president G. Komalam at Kadakkaal bridge; State Planning Board member Jiju P. Alex at Mulayam bridge; Suchitwa Mission liquid waste management director Arun at Plakeezhu junction; and KILA director general Joy Elamon at Channoorkadavu.
Plastic and other solid waste that were blocking the flow of the river from Madhapuram Irappakuzhi to Vellanikkal Channoor was removed with the help of the public and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme workers.
Manikkal grama panchayat president Kuthirakulam Jayan, students, and people’s representatives took part in the mass cleaning drive.
