Haridwar, May 6 : Having worked for three years to clean rivers within the country, the All-World Gayatri Pariwar (AWGP) will launch a programme May 18 for cleaning the Bagmati river and the Pashupatinath temple in Kathmandu.

Gayatri Pariwar, a religious and cultural organisation based in Shantikunj, Haridwar, with branches across the world, started the Teerth Shudhhi Abhiyan (pilgrim spots purification process) from Rameshwaram Temple in Tamil Nadu three years back.

It has since taken up the cleaning of about 10 Hindu pilgrimage centres and nine rivers across India.

Among the rivers it has been involved in cleaning are Narmada and Tapti in Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, and the Banas in Rajasthan.

The Gayatri Pariwar has also started the "Nirmal Ganga Abhiyan" (Clean Ganga Campaign) to clean the entire length of River Ganga, of about 2,525 km.

As the first phase of this ambitious programme, a survey will be conducted of the banks of the river.

The clean-up campaign, has, for the first time, extended beyond India's borders with the "Nirmal Bagmati Abhiyan" and "Pavitra Pashupatinath".

Representatives of the Gayatri Parivar say that they met Nepal Chief Secretary Leelamani Poudiyal. They told IANS that Nepal Prime Minister Khil Raj Rejmi and the head of the AWGP Pranav Pandya, along with some Nepalese ministers, would lead more than 500 volunteers of Gayatri Pariwar from India and the local people in the clean-up campaign.

Participants will not only clean the temple premises and a three-km length of the river, but would also help shift the crematorium, enforce the ban on plastic bags, and work to stop the flow of effluents into the river directly.

A friendship football match will be played between the media group of Nepal and film and TV artists association to motivate people to join the campaign. (IANS)