Rally
for Rivers (03.09.2017):
Rally For Rivers is a campaign launched by Isha Foundation in
2017 to save the dying rivers of India. Rally for Rivers campaign was launched to create awareness
on protecting rivers. The campaign was launched by Sadhguru. He requested
people across the nation to join the campaign and show their support for the
cause.
The
Volunteers of National Service Scheme,
Kongu Engineering College participated in the initiative programme of
Rally for Rivers held at VOC Park ,Coimbatore on 03.09.2017. About
111 NSS Volunteers started their journey from the campus around 12:30 p.m. and around 2 p.m they reached the VOC park. The Isha Volunteers guided our volunteers by
making us seated in the place allotted to our college. They also provided us
with batches, caps and notices describing the Rally. Students of various
schools, colleges and parents actively participated in this event.
The
function started with several cultural performance such as musical concert,
dance performance etc performed by the students of various schools. Sathguru
made his presence to the spot at 4 p.m. The chief guests of the session were Hon’ble Governor of Punjab, Sri VP Singh Badnore,
Union Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan and Tamil Nadu cabinet minister for Rural
Development & Municipal Administration, Thiru SP Velumani. Also in
attendance were a constellation of sports stars: ace batsman Sri Virender
Sehwag, women’s cricket team captain Mithali Raj and Formula One race car
driver Narain Karthikeyan.
Among other dignitaries were Veejay Ram Nakra, representing the rally
partner, Mahindra Group; and Dr K Ramasamy, Vice Chancellor of the rally’s
technical partner Tamil Nadu Agricultural University.
Sathguru was delighted to welcome the august
gathering assembled in the park. He started his speech by presenting a
multimedia describing the current scenario of dying rivers. The video also
noted that states such as Tamilnadu , Maharashtra , Haryana , Punjab highly
lack in their soil fertility compared to other states. It also visualised the
support from several actor, actresses ,cricketers for this campaign.
Sathguru
stated the plan for the campaign was to make native forest trees to be planted in government-owned land
along riverbanks. Organic fruit tree cultivation would be taken up on private
farmers’ lands. This solution ensures that rivers are restored while also
enhancing farmers’ livelihood by more than doubling their income in five years.
The availability of fruit also improves nutritional intake among people. He asked the people to support this
campaign with great enthusiasm until he finishes his rally in Delhi on October
2,2017.
Following
Sathguru , Veejay Ram Nakra , the Senior Deputy Director of Mahindra Groups
delivered his speech. He showed his complete support to this campaign through
his speech. He also added that Mahindra Groups had planted about 13 million
trees. Then he was followed by Dr K
Ramasamy, Vice Chancellor of the rally’s technical partner Tamil Nadu
Agricultural University. He firstly praised the farmer society for their
dedicated work in feeding the people. So he stated that this campaign would be
a great support to the farmers to improve their yield.
Later
the speech was continued by Mithali Raj, Captain of Indian Women Cricket team. She
thanked Sathguru for providing her the opportunity to make her presence in this
event. She said that she would provide her whole hearted support to this
campaign. After her, ace batsman Sri Virender Sehwag
also showed his support to this rally through his pleasant speech.
Following
him, politicians such as Nagaraj, MP of Coimbatore and Tamil
Nadu cabinet minister for Rural Development & Municipal Administration,
Thiru SP Velumani gave their support via the speech, they presented to the
gathering. Then Union Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan, presented his speech
by saying that he has come here as a soldier of this movement and added that
this movement is not for the present but for the children of future generation.
Later the Vote of Thanks was presented by Sadhguru in
which he said that this was not a protest nor an agitation. This was the
campaign to raise awareness that our rivers are depleting. He added that everyone
who consumes water must Rally for Rivers.
Then
prizes were distributed to students who won prizes in drawing competition
relating to this movement by the chief guest of this function. Finally the
Union Minister flagged off the rally which would culminate on October 2, after
covering 16 states and 23 events in major cities, traversing a stretch of 7000
km across India.
The
event ended by 6:30 p.m. Then the NSS Volunteers reached the college campus by
8:30 pm.
