Jammu: Central Government Pensioners’ Welfare Association, Jammu (CGPWA) in collaboration with Balgran, charitable Home for Destitute children, Channi Rama, undertook 2-hour long cleanliness campaign, under the Swachhta Abhiyan 2023, on Sunday morning along the road outside the Bal Bharti Public School.
A press statement said that about half a km stretch along with the drain was cleaned up. About fifty boys and girls and members of the CGPWA took part in the drive.
As a part of the programme, the Balgran collected the unserviceable items and auctioned them for Rs 23, 900. With the disposal of these items, the Home created some space besides earning revenue.
Later, a symposium was also held in the school on Swachhta in which six students took part and spoke about the importance of cleanliness in the life of citizens. They included Iskar and Zubair of class 9; Priyanka and Diksha of class 8; Jaffar of class 7 and Minkli of Class 6. All of them spoke passionately about inculcating the spirit of ‘Swachhta’ right from childhood to become a responsible citizen.
The president of CGPWA, Jammu and former DGP Kuldeep Khoda gave away gifts to each of them.
Speaking on the occasion, Khoda hailed the ‘Swachhta Abhiyan’ launched by the Modi government since 2014, every year commencing from the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi, who is a pioneer in spreading the message of ‘Swachhta.’ This initiative has impacted citizens, especially the children, who at their impressionable age, take it as a lifetime message.
Khoda also impressed upon the management of Balgran to give necessary focus to other matters like ‘Swachhta’, sports, debates, and other extracurricular activities as these were as important as studies, in formation of the holistic development of students’ personality.
In this context, Khoda suggested regular interaction of senior citizens with the students and offered to depute some of the members of CGPWA, Jammu which had a huge experienced human resource, for regular interaction.
The Secretary Balgran, V K Raina conducted the proceeding and briefly apprised about the activities of the Home and the school.
Later, at a joint meeting of the managements of CGPWA and Balgran, the modalities of this interaction were finalized. It was decided that one senior member of the CGPWA would visit the Balgran every second Saturday and interact with the inmates.
The objective is to infuse in the children, moral values, Indian culture, and other good things about the Indian nation. J K Vaid, former Director, GSI and life member of both organisations will be the first to interact with the students in November.