Bengaluru: A month ago, a 200-metre stretch of Bannerghatta Road near Jayanagar fire station at Dairy Circle was unusable for pedestrians because of heaps of garbage and a persistent foul smell. Today, the footpath is clean, walkable and visually appealing after a month-long clean-up by civic workers, followed by a beautification drive by volunteers from Youth for Parivarthan.The clean-up was carried out by a team of 20 pourakarmikas, four marshals, marshal supervisor, junior health inspector and deputy general manager from Bengaluru Central City Corporation (BCCC) and Bengaluru Solid Waste Management Limited (BSWML).Officials said the area had accumulated large quantities of mixed waste, including animal waste, making the clean-up particularly challenging. The stretch is also prone to chronic urination by the roadside, which worsened conditions.“We found a lot of construction debris had to be removed using earthmovers. After that, pourakarmikas removed leachate-soaked waste stuck to the ground using hand tools. The area was thoroughly washed using water from the nearby fire station,” said BR Nataraj, deputy general manager, BSWML.Following the clean-up, around 50 volunteers from Youth for Parivarthan (YFP) beautified the stretch by painting portraits and awareness messages on the compound wall. “We painted six portraits of personalities such as Sir M Visvesvaraya, revolutionary Bhagat Singh, poet Da Ra Bendre, and actors Rajkumar and Vishnuvardhan. We also created Mandala art and painted awareness slogans. Our volunteers, aged between 14 and 63 years, came from different parts of the city,” said YFP founder Amith Amarnath, an advocate.The volunteers scrubbed and repainted the footpath kerbs. According to Amarnath, YFP has cleaned and beautified more than 400 locations across Bengaluru over the past 12 years, involving over 10,000 volunteers. “We often complain about our surroundings not being clean, but change has to begin with us. A single plastic cover thrown carelessly can eventually turn into a garbage blackspot,” he said.
