SHILLONG: For a while now passers-by have been noticing a group of six or more people sweeping the Umiam Viewpoint, the Golf Link areas of Shillong, viewpoints in Sohra and several other public places.
These uniform clad young men with green T-Shirts and grey track pants are none other than the employees of Jiva and City Hut Dhaba.
Their employer is hotelier Babloo Jiwat Vaswani, owner of City Hut Dhaba, Jiva Resort and Deja Vu Restaurant. At City Hut Dhaba, plastic water bottles are being replaced by glass bottles which will become the norm at all Jiva outlets including the resort in Kutmadan, Sohra. There are currently different groups volunteering to clean up public spaces including a group called MakeSomeoneSmile.
They have been cleaning up the tourist spots in Laitlum and Golf Links and have now teamed up with The Shillong Times initiative “Operation Clean-up.”
MakeSomeoneSmile is also behind several other social services such as visiting the home for the aged and several other activities.
Another Clean-up group is from the Evangelical Union Students of India (EUSI) which keeps an eye on Golf Links.
They have also been involved in the cleaning of Umkaliar as well.
Speaking to this correspondent, Babloo Vaswani says that he does not want publicity for these daily clean-ups.
“We would however exhort other hoteliers and institutions to also pitch in by lending their human resource towards making Shillong more liveable. We are doing our best and we hope others follow,” he said.
Responsible tourism is what Babloo is practising and has become a role model who should be emulated by all other hoteliers and restaurant owners.
