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The newly unveiled public drinking water booth seen at the Naga Shopping Arcade in Dimapur.[/caption]
Eastern Mirror Desk
Dimapur, June 21: The ever-growing consciousness for a sustainable environment has spurred the Ao Students’ Union Dimapur (ASUD) to contribute towards a cleaner and healthier city. The ASUD has transformed a garbage disposal area adjacent to Hotel Saramati at the Naga Shopping Arcade (aka Super Market) in Dimapur, into a public recreational area named ‘Jubilee Park.’ The park is also equipped with a free public drinking water booth.
It was inaugurated on Friday by the Minister of Public Works department Tongpang Ozukum. This initiative was undertaken by the ASUD to commemorate its golden jubilee celebration in 2018.
The convenor of the golden jubilee planning committee, K Temjen Jamir told Eastern Mirror that the initiative took about four years to complete due to difficulty in raising funds and unavailability of land. The union also surveyed the needs of the people in the city and later realised that they were in need of a free public water-drinking place and a proper recreational area.
In order to raise funds, the ASUD ordered 10000 units of waste bins from Mumbai. They were sold to the public and other institutions. They managed to earn more than INR 10 lakh from it and this was invested for the establishment of the park.
“The amount was not enough to complete the project,” lamented Jamir and added that the Development Authority of Nagaland (DAN)and voluntary donation from well-wishers helped cover the rest of the expenses. The union requested the garbage disposal area from DAN with an understanding that they would maintain the place.
“We raised the land level by filling it with soil and sand. Later, we planted tree saplings,” he added.
Jamir further mentioned that DAN is supplying the water. According to him, the water-drinking booth is electronically processed with six filters. “Under the scorching heat in Dimapur, we see so many people struggling. Though packaged water is available, everyone cannot afford it. So we decided to provide free drinking water facility of good quality,” he added.
“Jubilee is just celebrated (sic) with one day programme, so we decided to do differently by giving back something to Dimapur,” he said.
Inside the park, a coffee centre will be functional within the next few days. He also assured that swings, seesaws, and cross trainers will soon be installed. Jamir stated that the money earned from the shop would be invested for the maintenance of the park and ‘Yimkong Sidewalk.’
Apart from the Jubilee Park, the ASUD has also initiated two other major projects in Dimapur as part of the jubilee commemoration. One of them was renovating the sidewalk between PWD colony and West Police station to ‘Yimkong Sidewalk’ and painting graffiti measuring nearly 200 metres along the wall of that sidewalk.
The second initiative was a tree plantation drive on World Environment Day 2018 at Naga cemetery, Inter-state bus terminus, Dimapur Government College, and Senden Reju Dimapur.
Ozukum appreciated the union for its initiative and encouraged them to set an example to other unions and organisations. “This is an eye-opener for several societies,” he asserted.
“Nagaland has thousands of organisations with their own mottos and objectives. Are they really doing or going ahead as per the objective? The state would have been in a better place if they followed their objective,” he said. “Forming an organisation is easy but to carry forward the objective is hard.”
Jubliee Park measures 126x55 ft. and has over ten stone benches, each inscribed with the names of the sponsors. It took a year for the park to be completed.