VARANASI, Sept. 26 -- As the water level of the Ganga receded, a 156-hour cleanliness drive to remove silt from the ghats was launched at Varanasi's Assi Ghat on Thursday. The decreasing water exposed a thick layer of the silt covering the ghats, which causes significant inconvenience to visitors. Varanasi mayor Ashok Kumar Tiwari directed the engineers to ensure that the silt-removal operation proceeds smoothly. The cleanliness drive is being conducted simultaneously across all 100 wards of Varanasi Nagar Nigam, focussing on the ghats. Mayor Tiwari inaugurated the initiative by removing the silt from the ghat. The drive will continue until October 2, in commemoration of Mahatma Gandhi's birth anniversary. Additionally, a team launched a cleanliness awareness campaign at the Durga Temple. As part of the initiative, people were educated on avoiding single-use plastics, not littering on the roads, and maintaining separate dustbins for wet and dry waste at home. Additional municipal commissioners Savita Yadav, Vinod Kumar Gupta, joint municipal commissioner Krishna Chandra, chief engineer RK Singh, executive engineer Agam Katiyar, zonal sanitation officers Ravi Chandra Niranjan, Gajendra Chauhan, Sandeep Bhargava, assistant engineer Kapish Budheliya, regional health inspector, document managers Preeti Singh and Alok, and local citizens participated in the drive.htc...