Early Times Report
jammu, Sept 15: Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar kicked off the Prime Minister's "Swachata hi Seva" movement marking Mahatma Gandhi's 150th Birth Anniversary at the Art of Living International Center in Bengaluru. Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi thanked Gurudev for connecting lakhs of volunteers with the Swach Bharat Mission via a video conference call. Gurudev was later joined by thousands in a cleanliness drive around the Art of Living Center on Kanakapura Road. Congratulating the Prime Minister, Gurudev said, "The two main reasons for lack of hygiene are the aggressive tendency, and the depressive tendency. To come out of these two tendencies, we need to fill people with confidence that they can take this country to great heights. You have filled the people of this country with such enthusiasm." He called for everyone to set aside all differences and work together for a clean country. Thousands of volunteers joined his cleanliness drive on Kanakapura Road. Representatives of the Ajmer Sharif Dargah, who also joined the Prime Minister's Video Conference, expressed their gratitude to Gurudev for setting up a waste management plant at the Dargah to help process all the flower offerings into compost. The Art of Living has helped build 62,000 toilets across the country, set up 1000 bio-gas plants, and 11 waste management plants across temples, dargahs, vegetable markets and municipal corporations that collectively process 11.5 lakh kg of waste every year.
Volunteers of the organisation have also conducted 40,500 cleanliness drives and 52,466 hygiene camps. Apart from Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, participants in the video conference included Amitabh Bachchan, Ratan Tata, Dainik Jagran Group, Navodaya School from Dibrugarh, Assam among others. |
