Karwar: The district administration of Uttara Kannada and the tourism department have planned to develop Majalli beach near Karwar. On occasion of Gandhi Jayanthi, District Minister R V Deshpande launched developmental works at the beach by participating in a Swachhata Abhiyan programme at the beach.

Hundreds of students, government officials, volunteers of various organizations and public participated in the cleanliness drive at Majalli beach, located 9 km from Karwar city. They collected 12 tonnes of waste from he beach.

Deshpande instructed Majalli gram panchayat president to take action to prevent open defecation at the beach. He also told the gram panchayat to ensure toilets at every household.

After a small trekking of 1-2 km from Majalli beach, tourists can reach Tilamati beach (black sand beach which is rare in India). The authorities are going to develop Majalli beach which would also promote Tilamati beach. The district administration started deployment of lifeguards at Majalli. Once the tourist footfall increases, more lifeguards will be deployed, said sources.

Speaking to reporters, Deshpande said, cleanliness is not the government’s work alone, it is the duty of every individual. “I have been campaigning for cleanliness since 1985. About 1,900 gram panchayats in state have been declared open defecation free”, he said.

MLA Satish Sail, ZP president Jayashree Moger, ZP CEO L Chandrashekar Naik, deputy commissioner S S Nakul, SP Vinayak Patil and others participated in the cleaning drive at Majalli.