People busy with festivities

Hyderabad: Despite the Prime Minister launching the “Swachh Bharat” campaign on October 2, Telangana state was caught up with the state Bhathukamma celebrations. Only Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan seemed to have taken the initiative seriously as he and his wife took to the streets in the morning. But it only seemed to be a token participation as most of his staff remained spectators.

While chief secretary Rajiv Sharma took the oath of cleanliness in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Office, he didn’t do any cleaning. “We had given instructions to all officials to participate in the campaign and take the oath. But with the final day of the Bathukamma festival coinciding with Gandhi Jayanti, the government was more occupied with that,” Mr Sharma said.

He, however, added, “TS government will definitely implement the campaign. We will pick it up in the subsequent days.” Unlike Central government offices, which followed the campaign and cleaned up their peripheries, state government offices remained shut on Thursday. The CM visited Bapu Ghat in Langer Houz in the morning and the Governor caught up with him after kicking off the “Swachh Bharat” campaign.

Mr Rao was later busy in meetings with party leaders before attending the Bathukamma gala at Tank Bund on Thursday evening. Barring a few colonies and cantonment areas, much of Hyderabad also remained oblivious to the national campaign as hardly anyone responded to Mr Modi’s call. People also remained indoors owing to the heat.

Since education institutions and schools are shut for Bathukamma holidays and will only reopen next week, the “Swachh Vidyalaya” campaign will be started after that. However, central universities like the University of Hyderabad, English and Foreign Languages University and Maulana Azad National Urdu University saw students cleaning up their campus.