KVIC steps up to beautify Yamuna Ghats

Till Monday dusk hours, for septuagenarian Choudhary Vijay Singh, the village headman of the place barely 10 kilometers away from Delhi Secretariat – monsoon meant piles of garbage. But, when on Monday evening, Khadi and Village Industries Commission

(KVIC) Chairman Vinai Kumar Saxena and his KVIC member Jai Prakash Tomar led from the front, with brooms, gloves, and dustbins in their hands; it was a dawn of hope for all the Jagatpur residents.

When KVIC decided to adopt this village under the Swachhata Abiyaan, it virtually injected a good dose of enthusiasm among the village youths. "Financial assistance for the beautification of Yamuna ghats and sanitation drive apart, KVIC has shown us the way to keep our village in good health.

If someone of KVIC Chairman's age can sweep nearly one kilometer of our village road and ghat and pick the rags, it is our moral obligation to make Jagatpur a model village for sanitation drive," said 30-year-old Jagatpur Youth Wing convener Rakesh Kumar.

KVIC's sanitation drive begun with plantation from the Biodiversity Park of this village and summed up with cleanliness drive at another part of the village, i.e. the bank of River Yamuna. Addressing thousands of villagers gathered on the finishing point, KVIC Chairman said that he was enthused with the response reciprocated by all the villagers – right from school children to old people. "With such quantum of public participation, Jagatpur is destined to be one of the most beautiful villages in Delhi and NCR. KVIC officials are already on their job for proper cleaning, dumping, and disposal of garbage here," he said.

Later, in meeting with the KVIC Chairman, the villagers decided to make two in-charges for each lane, for ensuring cleanliness. The villagers had also decided to impose a penalty on those – who will intentionally make the village dirty.

Under the Swachhata Mission, KVIC's next destination is Mumbai's Juhu Beach.