BENGALURU: Members of citizen-driven group that strives to fix the city’s unclean spots, Youth for Parivarthan, wielded brooms and brushes on Sunday.
The group, consisting largely of students who pool in their pocket money towards the cause, were seen at work under the Basavanagudi flyover.
So far the NGO has beautified 72 spots in Bengaluru, with special focus of the southern part of the city. Volunteers usually clear the litter, strip posters off walls, give it a fresh coat of paint and sometimes even install seating at the spot.
About 35 to 40 students were part of the drive on Sunday. Founder Amith Amarnath told City Express that the flyover was one of the first projects the NGO had taken up a year ago. “We are redoing it now,” he said.
Recalling the condition of the flyover earlier , he said, volunteers had to peel away seven layers of posters on the wall before they could paint and beautify it.
“We have also been able to maintain it well as no posters have been plastered,” he said.
Amith, a final-year law student at the School of Law, Christ University, said funds for tools such as paint, brush and ladder came from volunteers’ collective pocket money. “In some cases, even Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike has provided the required items,” he said.
The group, he said, started off with five members and now has a member-base of over 900. “Not everyone can be part of every event, but 250 to 300 members are very active,” he said. The NGO will turn two in June.
He admitted that a majority of their projects have been taken up in Bengaluru South. “We have beautified a few walls in Bengaluru Central too. We will take up other areas eventually,” he added.
Vivek Hande, board member of the NGO, said he joined the group after reading about it on social media. “The locations beautified are decided in the Facebook group and details of the next project are posted online,” he explained.
He has been with the group for one-and-a-half years. “It has been a learning experience for me. We are doing very basic things. That’s what I like about the whole exercise,” he added.