Cabinet Minister Premchand Aggarwal, Cabinet Minister Ganesh Joshi and MLA Savita Kapoor laud effort, call for greater citizen engagement
Waste is wealth , resonates at Chaupal
Dehradun
Doon Cantt Swachhata Choupal concluded on Saturday with the resolve to make Uttarakhand clean and beautiful. The key highlight of the day was the launch of the Mountain Swachhta Technology Challenge on the second and concluding day of the Chaupal. Through the challenge; companies, startups and students will be motivated to work towards inventing a technology that would be able to collect garbage from hill slopes. Cabinet Minister Premchand Aggarwal was the Chief Guest and lauded the efforts of the Cantt Board in conceptualizing the Chaupal. Cabinet Minister Ganesh Joshi presided over the closing ceremony, while MLA Savita Kapoor was present as a special guest. The speakers mainly underlined that waste should be seen as a resource instead of a problem.
On the second day of Cantt Swachhta Chaupal, there was a special discussion that the machines made for cleanliness are largely for the plain areas in the country. There is currently no technology available to collect garbage from hill slopes and inaccessible hills in mountainous and Himalayan regions. Through the Mountain Swachhta Technology Challenge, companies making machines for cleanliness as well as start-ups and students will be inspired to work and seek technology solutions so that garbage can be collected from inaccessible mountain slopes.
The second day started with the Chaupal Pe Charcha discussion. The speakers said that the Chaupal is vital for companies to showcase their products and with such events there will be a change in the perception of the general public about waste. The speakers described the Swachhta Chaupal as an exhibition of garbage. Describing garbage segregation as the basic mantra of cleanliness, it was said that work should be done towards making waste a resource instead of a problem. With this while on the one hand the problem of littered waste will be solved, on the other hand there will be economic benefit from waste.
The first panel discussion of the day focused on the emerging landscape of startups and innovation. The last panel discussion of the program was on the various challenges and complications faced by the sanitation workers in their personal lives. In this panel discussion, four Safai Mitras were brought to the fore who are playing an important role in the field of waste management. The workers shared their experiences about the problems encountered in their day to day work.
51 companies, start ups, NGOs and self help groups participated in the Chaupal. They were given certificates of participation at the closing ceremony. The Chief guest and other guests described the Chaupal initiative as extremely important for the entire state of Uttarakhand.
People present at the closing ceremony were also administered an oath to make the state clean and beautiful. The guests, officers, municipal representatives and students present in large numbers took a pledge to segregate garbage from their homes, not to use single plastic and to associate at least five people with this campaign this year.
