District Collector S. Sambasiva Rao flagged off ‘Cycle-olam’, a youth mobilisation bicycle ride for propagating the government’s development initiatives, here on Wednesday.
Cycle-olam is an initiative of Green Care Mission and the College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram, with the support of Responsible Tourism Mission, Harithakeralam Mission, Arogya Keralam, and Souther Railway to encourage youngsters as well as cyclists from all sections of society to get involved voluntarily in developmental activities.
The one-week long ride involves visits to colleges along the length of the State to mobilise the youth for the cause.
“We plan to encourage cyclists as ambassadors of various government programmes and also to promote cycling as a way of life,” said K.T. Abdul Nassar, Coordinator of Green Care Mission.
He said that cycling is a hobby of the affluent class these days and that the ride should change it.
“We had a summit of cyclists in Kozhikode on Wednesday. More than 200 cyclists from all over the district as well as neighbouring districts took part in the summit and projected themselves to be part of government programmes,” he said.
‘A Big Cycle Book’ was also launched as part of the ride.
The book is kind of an autograph of important persons the riders meet during these seven days, who would fill it with their experiences of a cycling, in prose or poetry or in photographs, as they please. The rally will visit the Kochi-Muziris Biennale on Sunday and will conclude in Thiruvananthapuram on March 6. Two programmes, ‘Back to cycling’ and ‘God’s Own Country’ will be launched on the occasion. ‘Back to cycling’ is a short film contest with a prize money of ₹10,000 while ‘Gods Own Country’ is a photography contest.
The winner of the latter gets a certificate from Responsible Tourism Mission and ₹15,000 from Green Care Mission.
Besides, the selected photographs will be exhibited in the tourism pavilions of Kerala across the world.