NCC cadets get their hands dirty during the cleanliness drive near RIMS in Ranchi on Saturday. Picture by Prashant Mitra

Ranchi, Nov. 23: Pledging to rid the state capital of garbage, as many as 400 National Cadet Corps (NCC) members took up brooms and buckets to launch a cleanliness drive across the city and its outskirts today.

The drive was to commemorate NCC week that began on November 18 and will culminate on NCC Day on Monday, November 25.

The 400-odd NCC boys and girls, who took to the streets from 9am, represented various colleges, making up Battalion No. 3 of Jharkhand.

Lt Col Raju Ranjan, who is commanding officer of the NCC cadets, said: “We wanted to spread the message of cleanliness.”

He went on to add that cleanliness was directly related to health and hence it was imperative to give it its due importance.

While NCC cadets from Ram Tahal Choudhary College in Ormanjhi cleaned the 3km stretch between Booty More and RIMS, another group from Marwari College spruced up a 5km stretch from their college on Lake Road to RIMS.

As cadets from both these colleges reached RIMS, they decided to clean the state-run hospital too. Around 10.30am, as many as 100 cadets entered the premises.

As soon as they reached, Ranchi Municipal Corporation and RIMS management offered them extra hands to successfully complete their mission.

Cadets from St Xavier’s College worked on the road leading from St Mary Cathedral to Sarjana Chowk, while another group from Gossner High School cleaned up GEL Church campus.

Students and cadets from PPK College unit in Bundu, however, seemed to believe in the adage, charity begins at home. They cleaned stretches around their college, about 40km from the city.

While the teenagers chose to get their hands dirty, children preferred to say it with colour.

Around 50 students of Army School took part in a painting competition on cleanliness on their campus at Deepatoli.