BHUBANESWAR: Street festival Patha Utsav was observed in the City on Sunday on the theme Swachh Surveshyan 2017. The second edition of the event attracted more visitors as compared to the previous Sundays as the designated zones were crowded with pedestrians, cyclists and outdoor game enthusiasts in large numbers.
The activity zone at the venue from Master Canteen to Ram Mandir included various child-specific programmes. City-based Bakul Foundation had a set up a Book Cart which was thronged by children for a series of story telling sessions. At the child corner, slum children were seen dancing to the tune of modern songs.
Two ends of the street fest were ruled by music and dance shows. Old Odia numbers grabbed the attention at the podium near Station Square while the stage near Ram Mandir was set for modern tracks which enthralled the youths.
Painting, which is one of the key components of the street fest, engaged schoolchildren on the floor of Janpath.
Women awareness organisation WISH Foundation created awareness on HIV AIDS. Similarly People’s Cultural Organisation - Pecuc - created awareness on AIDS to mark the World AIDS Day which was recently observed on December 1. Social organisations were seen creating awareness on blood donation by taking out a rally chanting slogans of ‘Donate Blood, save human being’.
On the day, Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation officially announced the Swachhata App, a mobile application developed by Government of India’s Swachh Bharat Mission. The App can be downloaded from Google Playstore through which citizens can give feedback on cleanliness of a city and other sanitation issues.
Based on the feedback, the Government of India will rank cities as part of the Swachh Surveshyan programme which is going to start from first week of January among 500 Indian cities.