Our Correspondent
KOHIMA, NOVEMBER 12
Taking an aggressive step to clean up the perpetually litter strewn capital town of Nagaland, the Angami Students’ Union (ASU) in collaboration with the Kohima Municipal Council (KMC) is all set to launch a clean-Kohima project under the banner ‘Shining Kohima- Never Clean, Ever Clean’.
The project will take off with a sanitation day on November 14 which will involve a mass cleanliness drive across Kohima starting from 7 am onwards. Underscoring that Kohima belongs to its citizens, ASU has called upon all the citizens of the town to actively participate in the cleanliness drive on Saturday, particularly the different student bodies, tribe Hohos based in Kohima, colony/ward panchayats, women, youth, government officials, churches and civil organizations etc. “This is not going to be a one-day show, but a project that we will carry forward until Kohima is shining,” says Kezhazer Angami, convener organizing committee.
Briefing media persons at ASU office this evening, the committee officials shared their aspirations to make the town one of the cleanest in the country. They acknowledged that while the KMC takes care of the sanitation issue in general, the citizens also need to give efforts in their own way. More on page 5
A senior member of ASU expressed concern that although cleanliness drives are undertaken by many organizations, the town becomes dirty as it had been on the next day. This shows the careless attitude of the citizens, he observed. He also expressed the objective of ASU that the conscience of civic sense has to grow from every person, young or old. “We are declaring a war against bad practices and we believe that cleanliness will win,” he added.
It is the responsibility of all the citizens of Kohima to keep the town clean…. We want the people to develop a sense of belonging and initiate clean environment not just within their surroundings but throughout the town,” ASU advisor Neizokhotuo Belho says, and appealed for support from all the residents of the capital town to participate.
ASU president, Dievi Yano informed that follow up actions of the project are being planned. He said that for the sanitation day, more than 200 volunteers from ASU regional units (Southern, Western, Northern and Chakhro) are expected to actively participate. The union also has plans to tie up with schools and colleges and form sanitation cadets (students) to spread awareness on hygienic practices.
For the cleanliness drive on Saturday, the union has also called upon neighbouring villages of the town such as the Kohima village, Meriema, Chedema, Rusoma, Jotsoma and Phesama to mark the day to clean their respective villages and townships which, the union feels, would be of immense contribution.
The committee members have also informed that the Kohima Chamber of Commerce & Industries, business establishments, district administration, police, Roads & Bridges, PHED, DPDB etc have given their confirmation to assist in the mass social work.
The activities to be taken up on the sanitation day include clearing of roadside bushes/shrubs/weeds, roadside drains, sweeping of colony streets/roads etc. The committee further informed that the work distribution is designated as follows- Cleaning of WWII Tank area (police personnel under SP Kohima), DGP point and vicinity (DGP staff), TCP Gate to Classic Island (ASU Range Units), TCP Gate to Para Medical Bridge (PHED), and ongoing road repair site (PWD R&B). For transportation of waste materials collected for disposal, ASU has informed all concerned to contact the union monitoring cell in charge at 986200353/9774002558.
Meanwhile, it was also learnt that the KMC will be organizing a half-marathon run to create an awareness on Kohima Smart City Project, on Saturday at 6 am, prior to the commencement of the cleanliness drive. The marathon will be flagged of by parliamentary secretary Municipal Affairs, R Tohanba.
