An impromptu cleaning drive, led in part by Deputy Commissioner of East Garo Hills, Swapnil Tembe, saw a huge amount of trash being collected by local residents, with the WDSA ground and the Rongrenggre playground being the focus.
The two areas have been a huge draw for revelers during the Christmas and New Year season, which left a huge amount of rubbish, mainly plastic bottles, at the two sites.
“The thought was to clean the whole of Williamnagar with a focus on Rongrenggre and the WDSA playground. These two areas have been dirty for a long time, especially since after the holiday season,” said Tembe on the drive.
The drive was organized on Saturday with hundreds of residents, young and old, being part of the much-needed initiative.
According to the DC, a huge amount of plastic bottles, cigarette butts and cigarette packets and liquor bottles were found in the two grounds. The WDSA is an important ground for sportspersons of the region while the Rongrenggre playground lies besides one of the oldest schools in the town.
“It is disheartening to see these scenes and we need to start working on stopping these negative acts. While we can do these drives, the fact is that people need to stop littering. People complain that there are no dustbins, but even in developed countries there are no dustbins. People just don’t throw trash until they find one. The mindset to cleanliness has to change,” said the DC.
The DC further asked people not to burn leaves, so that nature can take time to turn these into compost while he suggested that people collect plastic garbage and wait for the municipality to take these away.
