Pune: On Swachh Bharat Mission’s third anniversary on Monday, Ankur Dhengle, an activist of Enjoy Mitra Mandal and Swarajya Mitra Mandal organised Swachh Mundhwa, Sundar Mundhwa cleanliness campaign.
Dhengle and his team of volunteers decided to act on the cleanliness issue. “I stay here and it’s my core responsibility to look after the hygiene and cleanliness for a better future. So I got all my friends, locals and residents together and carried out the cleanliness drive,” he said. Mundhwa has many housing societies, restaurants, cafes and bars around the area. The garbage generated from these places is dumped in the open fields which is making the area dirty, according to residents of Mundhwa.
Around 80 volunteers took part in this initiative along with children. The gloves, masks and brooms were sponsored by owner of Deccan Paper Mill, Siddharth Mehta.
Talking about the amount of garbage collected from the area, Dhengle, who is into the construction business, said, “Since morning we have collected almost a tonne of garbage but there is still more to clean. We have two trucks which are loading all the collected garbage and disposing it. Mostly the garbage includes plastic bags, leftover food and untreated sanitary napkins.”
He lamented the way sanitary napkins are being disposed of even after so much awareness is being spread. “People still fail to understand the process and end up throwing it in the open. We have used our safety gears from masks to gloves since we had a lot of children who participated in this drive.”
“Garbage can be treated at home. Cleanliness is an individual responsibility and its high time that we should fulfil our responsibility legitimately. Hence we have made a WhatsApp group which includes local residents, authority and youngster, this will help in awareness and also for a cure,” the 29-year-old added.
