For well over a month-and-a-half, villages and tea garden lines in Khumtai Assembly constituency have been in an action mode spurred by their natives, irrespective of age group and gender. Activated by a clean and green initiative of the local MLA Mrinal Saikia, they are out to prove a point. Bamboo waste baskets on either side of its roads and public places have become the hallmark of the open spaces in the constituency after the MLA, in a Eureka moment, decided to organise an inter-village and inter-tea garden cleanliness competition in his constituency for obvious reasons. The results are now for all to see.
So much so that even the Assam Chief Minister announced a similar competition for all the districts of the State with a bounty of
₹ 100 cr for the winning district. Dr. Sarma personally visited Khumtai to announce results of the competition for four Zila Parishad Constituency (ZPC) areas, namely Brahmaputra ZPC, Khumtai ZPC, Kothalguri ZPC and Dakhin Hengera ZPC.
As part of the competition, five villages from each ZPC area and three tea gardens were chosen in recognition of their performance in cleanliness quotient. The winners were awarded with the amount equivalent to the construction of two kilometres of road while the second position holders were awarded
₹ 20 lakh. There were attractive cash awards for third, fourth and fifth positions as well.
Half of the amount will be provided by the MLA from his Local Area Development Fund and the remaining is to be borne by the Government of Assam.
Parag Borah, a leading social activist in Khumtai said that since the competition was announced on February 13, villages and tea gardens had begun to look cleaner, neater, and attractive. “Between March 1 and 3, a preliminary survey was carried out, after which 48 villages and three tea gardens were disqualified. On March 4 and 5, five groups of judges — one group for villages under each of the four zila parishads and one for the tea gardens — visited the remaining villages to decide the winners,” said Borah, an organiser.
When Asom Barta visited their village, Satyen Barua (80) and other elderly men of Da–Dhara village in their squeaky clean ‘dhoti-kurta’ and gamocha had assembled at the Naamghar, the community prayer hall, on a busy day,to discuss their village’s action plan after it had been adjudged the winner in the competition.
Barua, the oldest person in the village, told this newsletter that keeping their courtyards and the village clean was a part of their daily activity and not merely an effort with an eye on the competition.
The octogenarian said that once the competition was announced this February, Da-Dhara and its surrounding villages have seen a spurt in cleanliness activities.
Mandira Barua (55) from the same village said that women in the village teach their kids about cleanliness. “You will not see litter at any public places in our village. To be clean and keep our houses clean is a tradition in our village,” she said.
Adjacent to the Da–Dhara village is Da-Dhara Ahom Gaon. Here, the males are expected to clean the village every Sunday. No wonder, it stood second in the competition.
“We collect used plastic bags and other garbage from public places. While waste grasses are decomposed in the village, plastic waste is stored in bamboo waste baskets put on both sides of the roads in the village. Once these baskets get full, a vehicle, arranged by the MLA, picks up the waste and takes it for decomposition,” informed Someswar Gogoi (77).
At the Muhiram Hazarika High School in Mudoi Gaon (the village was adjudged fourth in the competition), students do a daily campus cleaning drive, said Mrinal Khound, the Headmaster. It is in this high school that Chief Minister Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma interacted with students during his visit.
In the tea garden residential lines in Khumtai, tea garden workers welcomed the move of holding inter-tea gardens cleanliness competition.
Dhiren Haiam, a Sardar (head of the group of tea garden workers) of Natun Mati Tea Garden which was adjudged the winner, said that after the cleanliness competition was announced, a drive was launched to create awareness across various tea estates of the constituency.
Laxmi Tanti (40), vice president of Swagata Village Organization, said that women folk of tea garden areas were more enthusiastic in their respective tea garden line areas.
