Editor,
While expressing sincere gratitude, through your esteemed daily I wish to draw the kind attention of my fellow citizens to the news report in a section of the media in February this year captioned, “Shillong back to being dirty” wherein the present sewage system and the state of cleanliness has been criticized. In fact this is visible after last Saturday’s hail storm where all the drains, streams, rivers were clogged with plastics. We all know that Shillong is losing its pride of being the “Scotland of the east”. It is worth mentioning that a small village named “Mawlynnong” has been appreciated by our Prime Minister, Modi in his “Maan ki baat” program for their effort in keeping the village clean and also for turning it into a famous tourist destination. During the 12th SAF games launching ceremony this small village “Mawlynnong” was portrayed for its cleanliness. Unfortunately we did learn anything from it. Aren’t we all responsible for the mess called Shillong? Is it also not our duty to keep our city/ locality clean? We cannot always blame the civic authorities; we are equally responsible. If we can keep our houses clean why not our locality and the roads we move around on. It is a common phenomenon that most of us throw garbage on the road, and into nearby drains/streams. The garbage accumulates and chokes up the drains causing blockade and pollution and damaging the environment which also spreads diseases. It is not at all difficult to keep our surroundings clean; we only need to change our mindsets and pledge that henceforth all household garbage is dumped in the nearby dustbins and not strewn everywhere. I also request the authorities concerned to install dustbins all over and ensure that the garbage is disposed off and also to construct drains of standard sizes and repair the existing drainage system. I appreciate the Prime Minister’s initiative for a clean nation but it is our moral responsibility to make his move a reality because a nation will be great only when its citizen becomes great.
Yours etc.,
Krishnendu Deb,
via email
