Sanitation workers felicitated
Volunteers of Bihar’s Rashtriye Gandhi Yuva Sangh (RGYS) identified 21 sweepers and felicitated them as ‘Swachhata Nayaks’ (Sanitation Heroes) with an insurance cover of I1 lakh each at Hajipur on October 2. RGYS president Navneet Kumar said each year people involved in sanitation works are selected for their dedication and feted as ‘heroes of sanitation’. RGYS volunteers and common people donate to arrange for their felicitation ceremony, which is held in front of a temple of Goddess Durga.
Ambitious scheme launched amid water-logging
Calling upon the people to save nature for saving lives, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, accompanied by his deputy Sushil Kumar Modi, launched ‘Jal-Jeevan-Hariyali (Water-Life and Greenery) campaign on October 2. It was launched on the first day of a two-day ‘Gandhi Vichar Samagam’ in which hundreds of Gandhian scholars attended. Incidentally, the state including its capital Patna is reeling under rainwater. At the occasion, Kumar highlighted the salient feature of Jal-Jeevan-Hariyali and said that the project was launched for freeing as well as renovating water bodies and for promoting greenerys. Policymakers have estimated a budget of I24,000 crore for the scheme to promote greenery in the eastern state.
‘Library -Café’ round-the-clock
If everything goes well, Patna University plans to set up a ‘Library-Café’ at its central library, which houses more than 6,000 rare and valuable manuscripts and documents ranging from 100 to 200 years ago. According to PU vice-chancellor R B Prasad Singh, a firm was hired to prepare a detail project report on the proposed ‘Library-Café’ in which 20 computers will be installed for students. Singh said a fund of
I8 lakh was already sanctioned by the government. All documents and manuscripts are being digitized and can be accessed from the Library Café, he said.
19 Plastic Crusher Machines at railway stations
To ensure a plastic-free experience, the East Central Railway (ECR) has installed 19 Plastic Crusher Machines (PCMs) at railway stations across its jurisdictions, including Patna junction. On all these stations, 5,000 to 10,000 plastic bottles on an average are crushed by these machines daily. “Twenty-one more such machines are to be installed soon by October,” ECR spokesperson Rajesh Kumar said, adding that powder prepared by crushing bottles is used for manufacturing T-shirts. So far, ECR has got 2,000 T-shirts from plastic waste.