Kathmandu, September 3

The Bagmati Clean-up Campaign – now 173 weeks old – scooped up 11 metric tonnes of garbage from under the downtown Teku bridge today.

Around 500 government employees led by Chief Secretary Dr Somlal Subedi participated in the event to mark the occasion of Civil Servants’ Day.

Former Chief Secretary Lilamani Poudyal, Federal Affairs and Local Development Secretary Kedar Bahadur Adhikari, Commission of Investigation for Abuse of Authority Secretary Shanta Raj Subedi, Education Secretary Shanta Bahadur Shrestha, Drinking Water and Sanitation Secretary Dr Sanjaya Sharma, Former Secretary Suresh Prakash Acharya, Jaya Mukunda Khanal, Madhav Regmi, and AIGP Bigyan Raj Sharma were among those who helped collect the garbage, said High Powered Committee for Integrated Development of Bagmati Civilization Chief Rajesh Singh.

On the occasion, teams led by Secretary Subedi visited houses around Teku asking local residents to not allow the disposal of waste products by the river and inform the police or Kathmandu Metropolitan City if anyone was found to be doing so.

The campaign saw a total participation of around 1,000 volunteers from the Committee, KMC, Nepal Army, Armed Police Force, Nepal Police, and Malpi Academy among other organisations.