The Dehradun-based student activist group, Making a Difference by Being the Difference (MAD) conducted its weekly clean-up drive and awareness programme in Dobhalwala on Sunday. About two dozen members first gathered at Astley Hall and then proceeded towards the cleanup location which was in Dobhalwala.
The volunteers said that the extent of waste that greeted them was considerable. It was a combination of household waste, hotel waste, chicken remains and biodegradable waste wrapped in polythene. The MAD members divided themselves into two groups -- one that was going to focus on cleanup drive and the other that was going to focus on the public awareness programme. As the group members visited door to door yet again trying to explain the significance of civic sense and making a case against such improper disposal of waste, the other team was doing its bit to clean up the improperly disposed garbage. The two pronged activity continued for over two hours. After sometime, MAD members also started working on a dirty wall, scrubbing it and readying it for a wall mural that the organisation plans to paint on it.
In the course of the activity, not only did some locals stop to compliment the efforts of the team, but also some of them joined the efforts by taking on gloves and cleaning for sometime themselves. MAD members hope that ultimately civic sense will prevail and the very need for such cleanup drives and awareness programs will be diminished. Present in the activity were the group’s founding head Abhijay Negi, Shreya Singh Rohilla, Saurabh Dandriyal, Jahanavi, Yashraj, Prerna and others.