The Hindu 05.04.2013
Lakshminarayana joins the Clean City Championship campaign
Taking a break in the midst of a high profile investigation into Disproportionate Assets (DA) against Kadapa MP Y.S Jagan Mohan Reddy, Joint Director of CBI, V.V Lakshminarayana turned into a spirited campaigner for effective and scientific management of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) at a meeting of stakeholders convened here on Thursday.
The meeting was organised by Guntur Municipal Corporation, which will log into Clean City Championship, a la IPL Championship in which urban local bodies will vie with each other in effectively segregating and recycling solid waste into energy. Chairman of Pragti Resorts, Gadde Bala Koteswara Rao, was the official sponsor of the programme.
Mr. Lakshminarayana, who is a now a household name in the State, was the main attraction at the meeting attended by leading industrialists, representatives of civic society and tax payers association and was the last to speak.
“I have taken leave for a day to be at the meeting since the cause is dear to me. I believe that we have the capacity to become a model country by the year 2020 like the one envisioned by former President Abdul Kalam in his Vision:2020 document,” Mr. Lakshminarayana said.
As the audience sat glued and an attentive media capturing his every movement, Mr. Lakshminarayana went on and reminded about the Surat model, which transformed a plague-hit city into the second cleanest city in the country.
“Effective solid waste management and rainwater harvesting can transform our country,” he said.
He narrated his contrasting experiences of visiting a ‘health city,’ a place throbbing with hospitals and Pragti Resorts on the outskirts of Hyderabad
He concluded his speech by narrating a short story about a beggar squatting on a pot of gold for 30 years, only to be reminded by a pious soul about his foolishness. “We all have gold in our hearts but like the beggar, we are unmindful of it,” Mr. Lakshminarayana rounded off.
District Collector and Special Officer of Guntur Municipal Corporation S. Suresh Kumar pledged his support to the initiative and said that Rs.70 lakh from 12th plan would be spent on sanitation.
He also urged industrialists and philanthropists to contribute to the unique sanitation drive by directly sponsoring tools like push carts, vehicles etc.
Superintendent of Police, Guntur Urban, Ake Ravikrishna, Municipal Commissioner (I/C) P. Srinivasulu, Deputy Commissioner Abdul Latif, Municipal Health Officer Sridhar were present.
