Agra wakes up to polythene menace, starts drains’ clean-up

AGRA - The Agra Municipal Corporation Tuesday launched a massive drive to clean up the city’s open drains of thousands of quintals of polythene bags, empty bottles and wrappers that had choked for the past four days the discharge of waste water into the Yamuna river.

“We have put up machines and men and are trying our best to collect all the garbage and polythene to prevent its escape into the river once the water level starts receding. The Bhairon nullah (drain), the Fort nullah are now cleaner. We will take up the other nullahs subsequently,” Municipal Commissioner Vinay Pandey told IANS.

Continuous rains in the past two weeks have indirectly helped wash all the dirt heaps and move polythene dumps into the nullahs which open into the river. “Looks like the whole city’s supply of polythene is accumulated here,” green activist Ravi Singh said after a visit to Mantola nullah.

“If there’s any let-up in efforts, tonnes of polythene will find its way into the river. As it is, the scene is disgusting and a reflection of how we mismanage our resources,” said Surendra Sharma, the president of the Braj Mandal Heritage Conservation Society.