Beaches to be cleaned in the next 9 days: Mayor

CHENNAI: The third annual beach clean up organised by the Chennai Trekking Club (CTC) early on Sunday morning attracted a huge crowd. Speaking to volunteers during the clean up, Mayor of Chennai, Saidai S Duraisamy, who inaugurated the drive and also joined the volunteers in removing litter from the sands, said that measures would be taken to keep the coastline clean. He also added that over the next nine days, a major cleaning of all beaches would be undertaken.As many as 2,639  volunteers from various walks of life helped clean a 16 km-stretch from the lighthouse on the Marina to Injambakkam. Three schools, colleges, three orphanages, six external groups and more than 30 corporate groups, including Cognizant, Nokia, Logica, Mindtree, HCL and HP, participated in the exercise, apart from 1,000 volunteers from CTC.A spokesperson of the four-year-old CTC said, “Our treks are organised to be environment friendly. This is our way of giving back to nature and also showing people how to care for our beaches. Rather than just create an awareness, we would like to show our service through action.” Their plan seemed to work, as many regular Sunday morning visitors to the beach volunteered to join the cleanup campaign on the spot.One of the participants, Swaminathan, said, “We have spent most of our lives along this beautiful coastline and we want to show people how to maintain it.” Concurring with him was Vignesh, a member of CTC. “This is my first time on a beach cleanup. Contributing and giving back to my city has given me a really good feeling,” he said.