GUWAHATI: A group of women in the border hamlet of Ukiam in lower Assam’s Kamrup district has resolved to keep a thriving picnic spot clean this season and also set an example for habitual litterers to mend their ways.
Members of the Ukiam Mahila Safai Samiti embarked on a cleanliness campaign as they cleared garbage from the banks of the Drone, Sree, Dilma rivers, less than a kilometre away from the Ukiam market area, on Tuesday.
More than 200 women and men took part in the daylong drive.
“We intend to sustain this campaign throughout the picnic season which is about the peak next month. Every winter, thousands of picnickers come to Ukiam, have a good time but forget to keep the area clean. But we have resolved to curb such casual littering for good,” Clarin Marak, secretary of the Samiti, told The Shillong Times on Tuesday.
Plastic packets and bottles, empty liquor bottles, paper, left-over food, etc, are a common sight on the banks of the rivers during the picnic season.
“The paper and plastic packets have been piled up at one place and will be burnt. But what we are trying to do this time is to place volunteers in certain spots and keep picnickers honest. It is difficult to change habits of people, but at least if the place is kept spic and span, the tendency to litter can be curbed to an extent,” Marak said.
Jawaharlal R Marak, the president of the Ukiam-Kyrshai (Assam-Meghalaya) Joint Public Suraksha Committee, said that it was inspiring for everyone, including the residents of villages on the other side of the border as well, to see women taking a lead role to keep Ukiam clean.
As it is, the Drone-Sree-Dilma river festival to be held at Ukiam from January 9 to 12, 2020, has pledged to spread the message of shunning single-use plastic for a safer environment.
“We are planning to form a special team of volunteers to rein in litterers during the festival this time. As it is, thousands of picnickers throng the confluence of the three rivers (Ukiam) every day during mid-November to January. So, this time, we will be zeroing in on the habitual offenders,” Suneet P. Marak, general secretary of the festival organising committee, said.
The past editions of the river festival have witnessed footfalls close to 4000 people every day.
Asked about the assembly of several picnic parties at the site during the season and the threat activities such as littering pose to the area, he said, “We will be deploying more volunteers to strictly ensure that no plastic is used or thrown into the river or on the banks by people during the festival.”