Nagaon students 'adopt' road to prevent littering

Guwahati: After taking several steps to generate awareness about the environment, including testing water contamination in their neighbourhood and recycling plastic bottles to water trees, 25 girls from Nagaon Bengali Girls' High School have 'adopted' the road in front of their school to ensure its cleanliness.
On June 5, celebrated as World Environment Day, the spunky schoolgirls will declare themselves 'green police'.
In a recent meeting with Diganta Das, chairman of the Nagaon Municipal Board, the students submitted a proposal to monitor the cleanliness of the one-kilometre stretch of the road in front of their school.
Das praised the students and said he had accepted their proposal. The municipal board has also asked residents of the area to refrain from throwing garbage on the road from 8am to 8pm.
"The students are doing something positive. A few days ago, they met me and told me about their initiative," said Das.
The project will include people living nearby, especially shopkeepers, and they will be taught about environment-monitoring and the need for hygiene and cleanliness. Campaigns will be held against urination in public, open defecation and indiscriminate littering.
The idea to 'adopt' the road germinated when the students finally got fed up of skipping across filth and litter while going to school. They decided to transform the dirty road into a clean one for greater public health and environment hygiene.
"A total of 25 students belonging to the school's eco club are part of the initiative. The locality near the road is a commercial one. All the dirt and garbage accumulates on the road," said Aparna Bhattacharyya, schoolteacher and motivator.
"The students have set an example for the rest of the state. If this practice is implemented by each and every student in schools and colleges in Assam, the region will be a green haven," said Nripen Sarma, engineer, Nagaon PHED, and water conservationist.