ANANTAPUR: At least 70 tonnes of waste was removed from the Tungabhadra riverbed at the Mantralayam Sri Raghavendra Swamy temple surroundings in Kurnool district in the past two days.
The drive to clean the riverbed saw the involvement of more than 500 volunteers drawn from the Sri Raghavendra Swamy Mutt. Normally, the riverbed and the bath ghats are receptacles of waste, old clothes and other discarded material. In addition, waste material comes in through continuous flow of water from upstream areas of the river, from Tungabhadra dam enroute to Mantralayam.
The mutt organised the two-day cleaning drive to make it convenient for the devotees to avoid mishaps when they take bath in the river. An average of 7,000 man-hours was spent on cleaning of the riverbed and some 70 tonnes of waste was removed.
This was the 10th year in succession that the mutt took up the annual cleaning drive in the Tungabhadra river.
