Bengaluru celebrates Gandhi Jayanti with plog run

A host of events ranging from plog run, operation clean-up, spinning the charkha (wheel) and a photo expo marked the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi in this tech hub on Tuesday.

As the day began, the Bengaluru civic corporation organised a plog run in 50 localities across the city in which thousands of men, women, boys and girls participated to make the city plastic-free.

Said to be the first of its kind, the event saw the young and old pick up any plastic item in sacks and jog or run in each locality and clean up the area.

"About 8,000 people participated in the event across the city to collect trash, especially plastic, and clean up the area as a tribute to Gandhiji and service to the city," Bengaluru civic body Commissioner Manjunatha Prasad said.

Coined in Sweden, plog means picking up trash such as used plastic cups or covers while jogging or running and cleaning up the place.

Among prominent localities where the plog run was held were Mahatma Gandhi road, Brigade road, Church Street, Richmond road, Lavell road and Residency road, Shantinagar, Majestic area, Jayanagar, City Market, Malleshwaram and Rajajinagar.

Being a national holiday, hundreds of techies from IT firms and back offices also joined the plog run along with school and college students.

As flora and fauna were also dearer to Gandhiji, the state forest department organised a walkathon in the sprawling Lal Bagh (garden) in the city centre, where about 2,000 people participated to conserve forests and wildlife.

"The event was organised to create awareness in the people to protect flora and fauna and maintain the balance between nature and human habitats," forest official V. Ranganath told IANS.

The participants also cleaned up the 160-year-old park spread over 240 acres with lakes, ponds, a botanical garden and hundreds of trees.

At Puttenahalli civic park in the city's southern suburb, about 1,000 residents participated in the operation clean-up as part of Swachh Bharat mission and got their residential area around the park rid of garbage.

After paying floral tributes to Gandhiji's portrait at the state secretariat in the city centre, Karnataka Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy unveiled a photo exhibition on Gandhiji where a rare collection of his photographs in black and white were displayed at Gandhi Bhavan in the city.

Organised by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry's regional office, the three-day expo shows the life and achievements of Gandhiji in pictures.

The Chief Minister also released a Kannada version of the book 'Gandhi in Champaran' titled in the local vernacular as 'Champaran Nalli Gandhi.' The book is brought out by the publication division of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

--IANS

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