Jal Shakti Ministry holds award distribution for Gangaquest-2020, 11.5 lakh people participated in quiz

New Delhi [India], June 5 (ANI): The award distribution for Gangaquest-2020, a quiz related to the river Ganga and its ecosystem, was held on Friday through a virtual conference by the Ministry of Jal Shakti.
Rajiv Ranjan Mishra, Director General of National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG), said 11.5 lakh people participated in the quiz.
"Our focus was on the five basin states but we got responses from across the country. The quiz was bilingual in nature and it was opened for international participants too. "We tried to make the quiz a million-plus quiz. The Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat inspired us in this direction. Several organisations gave us support," he said.
Booklets on wetlands in the Ganga basin was released by Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat. The names of the winners of the quiz were announced by the ministry.
In his address, Shekhawat talked at length about how the country was witnessing the progress towards a clean Ganga, owing to the initiatives of NMCG and the people of the country.
He also commended the participants for utilising their time well by participating in the Ganga Quest during this lockdown. The aim of this event was to involve more and more people in the work of river rejuvenation by raising awareness.
Mishra said they got support from Toppr Learning App, Wildlife Institute of India, World Wildlife Fund, Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), Kendriya Vidyalaya Sansthan, Navodaya Vidyalaya Organisation and several other state and central agencies supported the endeavour.
A release said that while the country is battling COVID-19, the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) has been busy for more than a month in raising another awakening among people especially among children about Ganga, rivers and environment through Gangaquest-2020, an innovative quiz that has been live now for more than a month.
It said the quiz was innovatively conceptualised and designed in partnership with TREE Craze Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation of young professionals, which has recently been in news for their efforts on the Yamuna Cleaning regularly at Kalindi Kunj ghat.
The quiz consisted of three rounds. While the first round was in the form of a survey to assess the attitude of participants on aspects of Ganga cleaning, the second round was a knowledge building exercise.
In the third and last round, participants faced ten questions on two selected areas of knowledge from historical and cultural significance of Ganga, flora and fauna, current affairs, physical geography, famous places and personalities etc with fastest and correct answers making them compete for attractive awards like tablets and complimentary subscriptions from Toppr.com.
More than one lakh schools participated in the Quiz. The Ganga Quest also saw international participation from 10 countries - Saudi Arabia, USA, Nepal, Qatar, Bahrain, UAE, Oman, Nigeria, Australia and Singapore.
Gangaquest 2020 also drew tremendous support from many luminaries with Shekhawat actively leading the campaign with his message and interaction with community-level structures within Namami Gange such as Ganga Vichar Manch, NYK Ganga Doots and Ganga Praharis and promotions along with Kailash Kher, Rajiv Khandelwal, Trichur Brothers, Temsutula Imsong among others. (ANI)