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Sree Krishna Temple, Udupi | Photo: Bibhash Dash
Udupi: The Krishna Mutt launched the ‘Sundara Udupi; Sri Krishnana Udupi’ project here on Sunday, April 20. The objectives of this project are to maintain cleanliness, beautify the town, and developing infrastructure, including the drainage system.
The project was inaugurated by former chief minister BS Yediyurappa.
The first stage of the project is to maintain cleanliness in the town, starting with the Car Street (Ratha Beedhi). A 1000 strong volunteer team, called ‘Sundara Sene’ has been formed for this purpose. The volunteers include shopkeepers, Auto and Taxi drivers, members of Rotary club and Lions Club, Udupi, and other residents of Udupi. The Udupi Municipality is also helping the Mutt with the project.
“Our belief is that the idol of lord Krishna in Udupi came from Dwarka mysteriously. Dwarka was a very well planned city; our Swamiji, Sri Sugunendra Tirtha, wants Udupi to be the Dwarka of today. Udupi is a temple town, but it lacks the heritage look. We plan to give it that look slowly,” said Vishnu Prasad, Secretary to Sugunendra Tirtha.
The project has started with the cleaning, and maintenance of cleanliness on Car Street. The rest of Udupi town will follow. This alone is expected to take a year. After that, plans include painting of walls and buildings around Udupi in matched colours to give it a ‘heritage’ look, and improve the infrastructure of the town.
Plans include placing dustbins at proper places, planting saplings and exclusion of plastic. “We want to be eco friendly; already, in the mutt, we have stopped using plastic bags. We give Prasad etc in cotton bags now. It costs six to seven times the cost of plastic bags, but people are coming forward to sponsor us,” said Vishnu Prasad.
Sub-edited by Akruti Rao |
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