Erasing 'dirtiest city' tag, brush by brush

Our Reporter
Dimapur, Oct. 12 (EMN): An initiative of three YouTubers from Nagaland has captured the hearts of denizens in Dimapur. Under the theme “My home, my responsibility” and in collaboration with the Dimapur Municipal Council (DMC), three vloggers -- Tiapong Tzudir, Swuyeka Chishi and Lanulemba Jamir -- have decided to use their platform and social media reach to campaign against tag of “dirtiest city,” after the commercial hub was adjudged as one of the dirtiest cities in India under the one lakh population category recently.

“We started with three projects and the latest and third one was cleaning and painting the foot overbridge near Holy Cross junction,” informed Tzudir while speaking to Eastern Mirror.

Tzudir shared that the third project lasted a week with well-wishers and volunteers turning up every day to help or offer refreshments.

“There was a need for citizens to come together and do something about cleaning the town; we shouldn’t just depend on the DMC or administration,” maintained Tzudir.

The 21-year-old also informed that the three vloggers were strangers and conversed about the initiative via social media at first and met only on the day they met the DMC administrator, Albert Ezung.

“The DMC administrator was very happy with the initiative and supported us,” said Tzudir.

He informed that before painting the foot overbridge, other projects included cleaning the footpaths in Walfort and Don Bosco statue area.

“Everyone should do their part and take responsibility of keeping your city clean; we cannot always rely on the government when we are the ones dirtying the place,” Tzudir said, adding that people anonymously donated refreshments to the volunteers as well. When asked about their next plan, Tzudir said that a plantation drive in Dimapur before Christmas is in the pipeline.

The DMC administrator along with Deputy Commissioner of Dimapur, Rajesh Soundararajan inspected the new and improved foot overbridge on Monday.

The artists who painted the foot over-bridge are Sentika Jamir, Touli Rotokha, Ritsanok Longchar, Thang Paite, Longuse Nyuthe, Livika Sankhil, Imtinen Pongen and Tokato Kaina.

For more information about the campaign, one can log on to SA Chishi on YouTube.