Marathon To Clean The Garbage
Kondagaon district in Chhattisgarh witnessed a brand new game last Tuesday, a game that will surely make PM Modi feel proud. At least this can be inducted to be a part of the of the government’s Swachh Bharat campaign. The innovative sport is called garbage marathon, and the man behind this innovation is the district collector Sameer Vishnoi.
A 2009 batch IAS officer, Sameer took charge of Kondagaon district a few months ago. As a staunch crusader of sanitation, Sameer found that there is a significant apathy among people over the cleanliness of the place. Unable to bear the litter spreading all around, the ex-IITan chalked out an unusual concept to not only solve the garbage woe of the city but also make the citizens more concerned about sanitation. The idea of his garbage marathon was executed by the youth of the Kondagaon city, whose participation made the event a big hit.
The idea of the marathon was to involve the citizens in cleaning the city. Though such a change in mindset does not take place in a single day, Sameer has shown them a right direction to head towards.
The competition began at 9 am in the morning from the NCC. With the sound of the whistle, over 400 of young participants rushed to collect garbage. With bags in their hands they ran around the city and within hours, they had collected garbage from all the busy junctions of Kondagaon. The city began to look cleaner with this initiative.
At the end of the day, 750 quintals of waste was disposed by participants. Bikram Koushik clinched the first position in the marathon by collecting 11.76 kilograms of waste. “I am happy that my idea has been able to bring about a behavioural change among people. I hope more people voluntarily come up to fight the garbage problem,” said Sameer Vishnoi to The Logical Indian.
Collector Sameer Vishnoi has been a true visionary for Chhattisgarh. A Gold Medalist engineer from IIT, he was won several accolades for his work in robotics. After becoming an IAS officer, he was the Panchayat Officer of Bijapur in 2013. During his tenure, Bijapur also won the national award of best district.
We hope that other cities and towns also come up with innovative ways to battle garbage problems.
