from typing import List


def sanitize_rows(raw_rows: str) -> List[str]:
    """
    remove blank lines and comments

        :param raw_rows: the rows
        :return: a list of 'cleaned' rows
    """
    cleaned_rows = []

    for row in raw_rows:
        if row != "" and row[0:2] != "//":
            cleaned_rows.append(row.partition("//")[0])

    return cleaned_rows