SHILLONG: Noted restaurateur of Shillong Jiwat Vaswani, also known for his silent crusade against an unkempt town, has been recognised by the East Khasi Hills district administration for his single-minded pursuit in keeping Shillong clean and green.
On Thursday, Deputy Commissioner Isawanda Laloo issued a “certificate of appreciation” to Vaswani “for contributing towards maintenance and cleanliness of Khyndailad”.
Owner of “Jiva” restaurant at Nongpoh and “Jiva resort” at Sohra, besides other eateries here, Vaswani has a dedicated team of workers who have been removing solid wastes from public places and thoroughfares on a daily basis for over two years.
As a double delight, Vaswani, for whom this mission is more of a passion for keeping Shillong tidy, also had happy tidings from the prestigious Restaurant Guru which recognised “Jiva restaurant” at Nongpoh with the coveted “Recommendation Badge”. The recognition is based on visitors’ review of their all round satisfaction over the quality of food, service provided etc by the popular restaurant at Nongpoh.
Team Jiva has been maintaining the divider around the Police Bazar area and the traffic island roundabout and have grown trees that have now become quite tall and added to the greenery. One of the things that Team Jiva does at their own expense is to paint the walls around the divider. But no sooner were the walls painted when unscrupulous people started spitting on the spotlessly clean walls.
Vaswani feels demotivated to see his and his team’s work reduced to naught. “What I fail to understand is what could drive a person to spit out the red betel nut laced water from their mouths into a spotlessly painted space. I can understand someone throwing garbage in a place that is already dirty but why on this wall which has taken a lot of effort from our side?” Vaswani queried.
However, he refuses to give up and has repainted the wall yet again. Team Jiva has been cleaning and sweeping the areas near Umiam Lake. They also go to different areas where they find that garbage has been thrown at the wrong places such as in Oakland.
The soft-spoken Vaswani believes in working with zeal to bring back Shillong’s glory. He feels it is every Shillongite’s responsibility to contribute their mite towards keeping this city, their only home, clean.
Recently, the Union Ministry of Urban Affairs, under its Swachh Survekshan 2020 survey, listed Shillong as one of the dirtiest cities with less than ten lakh population. This finding shocked many but a look around the town tells the real story.
But even while some unscrupulous people throw garbage wherever they feel like without a care, Vaswani of City Hut Dhaba and his team of workers have been cleaning different parts of the city and even beyond it.
Team Jiva as they are called have also teamed up with The Shillong Times led ‘Operation Clean-up’, which started cleaning up the rivers flowing through the city.
Recently Team Jiva and other well-meaning individuals cleaned up garbage piled up at the Shillong Peak and the meadows around it. The garbage is left behind by picnickers with no civic sense and whose only excuse is that there are no garbage bins in which to throw their litter.