SSA2009

SAVE SOUTHERN AVENUE 2009
4620 kgs!
(82 kgs + 137 kgs + 506 kgs + 117 kgs + 513 kgs + 730 kgs + 915 kgs + 620 kgs + 1000 kgs app.)*


Today was a litter-picking day with a difference for two reasons.

For the first time, we focused on concrete debris (bricks, grit, fragments etc.), which we had always dreaded for its weight and presence. This time we enlisted the support of the mayor and the KMC, which allocated two mini-trucks to help us cart away the concrete debris.

The result was that we extended the frontier in litter-picking. We focused on the heavy-duty stuff, we focused on the green payment stretch on Sarat Chatterjee Avenue (the same road as Menoka Cinema) and we removed sheets of concrete debris until we could see the brown of the ground again.

We were fortunate in having a considerably larger turnout of 60 student volunteers who worked from around 615 am to 8 am. The result was around a tonne of collected debris. This is what we did: shoveled the debris to as close to the pavement edge where other volunteers bagged the debris and yet another team hauled it into the waiting KMC vehicle. We covered nearly 100 linear feet and expect to proceed along the pavement line on Sunday (22 March) as well. Our objective: a sidewalk completely debris-free so that its soil is ready for rejuvenation and replanting (something that has not happened for years in the area!).

Before we end, a big thank you to…

The mayor Mr Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya for engaging the support of the KMC volunteers right down to Arun Sarkar (Principal Engineer), Shreemanto Ghoshal, Shyamalendubabu and Mihir Mukherjee (local KMC face). We are also grateful to the KMC boys who drove the trucks and cheerfully helped us haul the heavy debris bags on to their vehicles.
The students of La Martiniere (Girls and Boys), St James and Loreto House.
The residents of the area who revived our spirits periodically with drinking water.

This is how you can can this mini-aandolan ahead:

Join us to pick the litter. It is more fun that you think!
Do you know any young adult in your house, building or neighbourhood who would be interested to help? Send him / her our numbers.
Can you identify some really dirty spots (full of plastic and paper waste) in the city that we can possibly clean? Lead us!

Please contact Armaan Sood at 98304 33663.

Be a part of Kolkata’s solution!

* Our 3000 kgs of collected waste has comprised wine bottles, hair combs, ice cream wrappers, gutka pouches, cigarette packets, plastic bags, trouser belts, toothbrushes, ID cards, condoms, sanitary pads, shirts, coconuts, medicine bottles, toothpaste tubes, cigarettes, bus tickets, polyurethane strips, spoons, shoe soles, running shoes, cement bags, purses, ice cream cups, bidi pouches etc.