Agra

Please also see Agra Today and My Clean Agra

MY YAMUNA CLEAN CAMPAIGN (World Water Day)

Yamuna Clean up programme on 22nd March 2010 from 9am to 11am

Action at Poiya Ghat: Poiya Ghat will be cleaned by senior citizens groups, professional organisations and students of: St Patrick’s Junior College (Convent of Jesus and Mary); St Conrad’s College; St Peter’s, St Anthony’s Agra University Khandari campus (Prof Sunder Lal and Dr Ajay Taneja to coordinate). Inaugural speech by Dr RS Pareek. Time: 9am

Action at Balkeshwar Ghat: Students of St Andrew’s College will clean up the Balkeshwar Ghat from 9.30am after inaugural speech by Dr Ram Avtar Sharma who will lead the trash clean up programme

Action at Hathi Ghat (10am): Hotel Association members will be joined by representatives of several organizations including REDCO, Wake Up Agra, Sri Nathji Nishulk Jal Sewa, Guru Vashisht Samiti, clubs, Kshetra Bajaja, Help Agra, FOGSI, Smriti, Club 35,

Dr Narendra Malhotra to inaugurate 

ESSAY

The essay competition was an outstanding success. The result in Agra as published in Hindustan Times. Click image to see full size.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MY TAJ CLEAN

 Pursuant to last year's launching of My Clean Agra campaign in more than half a dozen schools of Agra with participation of thousands of students, and later followed up with the district authorities, we are happy to report a discernible change in many localities and specially around the monuments.

The Agra Development Authority has now put in action a plan to spruce up and clean the area around the Taj Mahal, Dustbins are being placed, cycle trolleys for new staff in uniform, are being arranged and private contractor appointed to lift the garbage heap.

The Agra Municipal Corporation commissioner Anand Bardhan has also chalked out a strategy to address the problem squarely. The drains are being unclogged and cleaned. Pavements are being lined up with cement tiles. The momentum is picking up.

It is now for the citizens' groups in the city to keep building up pressure. Remember cleanliness is our birth right and is basic to human existence with dignity.

Last September, we had started a cleanliness drive from Kalakriti auditorium to Taj's eastern gate, with former municipal corporation chief Shyam Singh Yadav picking up the broomstick to sweep the road. This symbolic act did have its trickle down effect.

We are not giving up on cleanliness which we have always held is next to Godliness. And most Indians being God lovers and religious, it is their duty to clean up the mess around them.

This August our friend and mentor from Australia REMCO will be here to guide us through the campaign with his vast experience and commitment. We are trying to network with schools to launch one of the biggest cleanliness drives this September, because we hate "uglinesss and poverty,"  and want our people to be clean from within and outside.

Each one of us has to resolve to not only reduce garbage production but also learn to dispose of domestic and commercial waste in an eco-friendly way. Instead of becoming nett aggregators of waste, let us learn to live in a clean, healthy way. This My Clean India campaign is all about changing the mindsets and helping people empower themselves through leadership and community service.

Those who agree with us shouldn't just remain fence-sitters but get actively involved in My Clean Agra programmes.

Brij Khandelwal,

APRIL 5, 2009 (media link)
Ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, as part of the MY CLEAN INDIA Campaign, hundreds of students of several schools along with senior citizens cleaned up Poiya Ghat Sunday morning, picking up rags and used polythene bags, to focus attention on river pollution which candidates of various political parties have chosen to ignore.

Brij Khandelwal, programme convener said apart from students involved in the My Clean Agra initiative, a large number of other voluntary groups and organisations were involved in Sunday's programme which specifically targeted the politicians for failing to clean up the cities and the rivers of India.

Students from St Peter's College, St Paul's Church College, St Anthony's, voluntary groups and political workers joined today's campaign for river cleaning.
 
 Action Sept/Oct 2008
Students from St Anthony's College, who were armed with broomsticks, cleaned up a part of the Mall road used by tourists to go to the Taj Mahal.

The clean up was part of "My Clean Agra" campaign. In other Clean Agra campaign activities, students from St Andrew's College took out a procession in Balkeshwar area to stress the need for proper disposal of garbage. They also persuaded people to stop littering and recycle plastic.

Read more here


John Farreira, principal of St Peter's College, led hundreds of students to clean up the main MG Road from Soor Sadan auditorium to Hari Parbat crossing. John said he would convene a meeting of all shopkeepers and flat owners to work out a permanent arrangement for regular cleaning.

Students from Gayatri Public School took the lead to clean up the Shahid Smarak and the park around it. Prelude School students cleaned up the Dayalbagh area with support from the teachers and management committee members. The main focus was on cleaning of the road to Taj Mahal from Shilpgram.

Shyam Singh Yadav, Municipal Commissioner, led the volunteers in picking up the litter. Yadav announced that the corporation would hold ward-wise cleanliness drives with support from the local community.

The clean Agra campaign

THOUSANDS of girls and boys in September last year in different parts of the city of Agra, India, participated in the cleanliness drive to give a momentum to "My Clean Agra" campaign which is part of the My Clean India programme now organised in several cities.

More than 500 girls from St Anthony's College armed with broomsticks cleaned up a part of the Mall road used by tourists going to the Taj Mahal.

Students from St Andrew's College took out a procession in Balkeshwar area to stress the need for proper disposal of garbage and to persuade residents of colonies to stop littering around and take to recycling of plastic and polythene.

Father John Farreira, principal of St Peter's College led hundreds of students to clean up the main MG Road from Soor Sadan auditorium to Hari Parbat crossing. Father John said he would convene a meeting of all shop keepers and flat owners to work out permanent arrangements for regular cleaning.

Students from Gayatri Public School took the lead to clean up the Shahid Smarak and the park around. Dr Shivani Chaturvedi announced adoption of the road from Ghatia to Wazirpura crossing for maintenance and cleanliness.

Prelude School students cleaned up the Dayalbagh area with support from the teachers and management committee members.

The main focus was on cleaning of the road to Taj Mahal from Shilpgram. Municipal commissioner Shyam Singh Yadav led the volunteers to pick up the litter. Yadav later announced that the Corporation would henceforth hold ward-wise cleanliness drives with support from the local community.

Remco Van Santen, the chief promoter of the campaign, said through these programmes we "want to drive home the message that cleanliness was everybody's business. People should act on their own and through community efforts clean up their areas. Mahatma Gandhi should be the inspiration."

Programme organisers said that in a series of interactions with students the passion as well as the concern for cleanliness was clearly visible and this "was clear from the enthusiastic response the campaign received from the students who turned up in big numbers even though Tuesday was a holiday."

Remco made students pledge that they would make the Agra the city beautiful within a year. "It's your city, you have a stake, if you dont act now it will be too late," he warned.

Those who helped today's programme were Surendra Sharma, Sudhir Gupta, Mukesh Jain, Subhash Jain, Hari Dutt Sharma, Vishal Khandelwal, Neha Chaturvedi, Rohit Jain, Megh Singh, Anubhav Khandelwal, and dozens of volunteers who all deserve thanks.

But this is just the beginning, "we must continue to work harder and one year from now we need to see results," said Agra programme convener Brij Khandelwal.

(Source: Waterwatch group)