The Shillong Municipal Board (SMB) today felicitated workers and entrepreneurs working towards waste collection for their contribution towards maintaining a clean environment.
Recognising them as “linchpins” of the SMB, Chief Executive Officer of the board, B.S. Sohliya said while orders are issued by the officers the workers and entrepreneurs are at the forefront to ensure a clean city.
“In all instances and times, we issue orders and directions from the comfort of our office. But the people in the field are the ones who ensures that the surrounding is clean and that all the waste management rules prescribed are followed in letter and spirit,” he said.
Stating that waste management goes beyond the cleaning of the surrounding but also include transferring of the waste to the disposal site, segregation, and recycling, treating the waste and turned to compost, etc., he said that all the criticism the SMB faced take it as a lesson to improve itself and to do better.
Lauding the self-help group including the Project Clean Surroundings (PCS) and the Iaineh Skhem Self Help Group for their massive contribution towards waste management, Executive engineer SMB FB Chyne said the Iaineh Skhem SHG who is partnered with the SMB for the last eight years is now popularly known as the “Merry Maidens of Marten”.
“Through the mini-compost plant, these women turn the biodegradable waste into manure and have become the champions of green economy and green jobs. Some of its members got opportunities to travel internationally for their commendable jobs and at present are master trainers in waste recoveries centres set up in different localities. They are associated with the waste workers association India and they are very instrumental in bringing about localised processing and disposal of waste,” he informed.
Meanwhile, founder of the Project Clean Surroundings (PCS) Jefferson Kynjing said that he started the project after a firsthand experience on how he felt after he accidently stamped onto a plastic bottle recklessly thrown by people.
He observed that one of the major contributing factors of littering is that people only want comfort and have no will to go and throw their waste in a proper dumping place or even to wait for the municipal vehicle to throw their waste.
Stating that it is the common sense of the people that are not common with everyone that makes the city dirty, he said that the worst are those people who not only litter, but go to places and after having a good time, break bottles which makes it more difficult for the waste pickers.
Kynjing said that it takes passion to collect waste and felt that God has sent people to earth to take care of it and not to litter and destroy the surroundings.
