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Students at the rally, on Saturday in Kohima.[/caption]
Our Correspondent
Kohima, Aug. 3 (EMN): Members of the Kohima All Nagaland Private Schools' Association (ANPSA) and the Kohima Smart City Development Limited (KSCDL) organised a publicity rally with the slogan "My waste, my responsibility," on Saturday in Kohima. The event was part of the 100 days Smart City Special Initiative campaign on sanitation.
About 1,600 participants including students and teachers from 33 private schools in the capital town took part in the rally.
The participants rallied from their respective school, picking up litter and trash along the streets. Later they disposed off the waste. The rally culminated at Little Flower hr. sec. school (LFHSS) where a function was held. Lithrongla
Tongpi, additional deputy commissioner of Kohima, was the special guest of the event.
Speaking at the rally, Tongpi quoted the famous phrase "cleanliness is next to God." She said cleanliness begins at one's house, kitchen or road. She asked the students to examine the conditions of their rooms at home or classrooms at school to see if they had put their things in the proper order.
"Your dustbin shows what type or kind of person you are," she told the gathering. She advised the students to make use of their dustbins and to inculcate the same habit to their siblings.
Reminding that it was the uneducated and the illiterate such as sweepers who clear trash, Tongpi advised the students not to throw away waste from vehicles. In accordance with the slogan of the rally, she asked the students to manage their trash and to carry own water bottles to schools by avoiding packaged water bottles.
To the teachers, the officer appealed to them to see that sweets and chewing gums are banned from schools too.
Kovi Meyase, advisor to the Kohima Municipal Council (KMC), expressed happiness at the students coming in huge numbers to rededicate to their role as students in protecting the environment.
"Smart city" is not about beautiful infrastructures or ‘one time beautification,’ he said. It is the people who should learn to be smart as they realise the importance of their roles and responsibilities as citizens, he said.
"As a reality confronting us" Meyase said Kohima was voted the "second most unlivable city" even when the capital town was one of the hundred “smart cities” in India. He appealed to the people to be inspired by the initiative of the students and to change their attitude and behaviour by taking responsibility of waste.
Making an earnest request, he further called upon the young students to carry forward their action-oriented message in taking proactive approach towards protecting the environment.
Angel, a student of class- 8 at Mount Hermon hr. sec. school gave a speech at the rally. The student appealed to the participants to act as the change rather than being mere spectators. Take steps so that the city will be in a much better condition, the student said.
"Instead of looking for hope, look for actions," she said. Together with a pledge, much can be done, she added.
A skit conveying the message of how to be responsible for Mother Nature was performed by students from LFHSS.
The students sang the Michael Jackson's "Earth Song," a theme about the need to care for the environment.
Ella Mary, a member of the Kohima Green Team, demonstrated how to segregate waste by using a "green dustbin and blue dustbin."
Meanwhile, Kohima Smart City Development Limited (KSCDL) organised a community work at the old MLA junction on August 3 in Kohima. The very familiar junction in Nagaland’s capital town is in for tidier days as organizations and communities have pledged to their maintenance by ‘adopting’ them.
Kohima Central Cable, Symbios and Realtel have ‘adopted’ the junction by entering into a written agreement with the KMC to maintain the old MLA junction. Vegetable vendors, Kohima Ao Baptist Church and local taxi drivers have also pledged their support to maintaining cleanliness of the junction.
While the ‘adoption’ of public places in Kohima by organizations is the first of its kind, the KMC’s administrator Kovi Meyase hoped that more organizations would be encouraged to come forward and offer their services for the welfare of the people.
Azungla, a participant, said "even if KMC is primarily tasked with the maintenance and cleanliness of public places, the responsibility falls on each and every citizen at the end of the day."