Members of Dehradun's student activist group, Making A Difference by being the Difference (MAD) assembled this Sunday to undertake a clean-up of the Prince Chowk area.
It will be recalled that the Ministry of Urban Development had ranked Dehradun at the 316th place out of the 434 cities and as a capital city, Dehradun was ranked 28th out of the 29 state capitals for its level of civic sanitation. MAD volunteers opined that these dismal rankings are a direct result of the piles of garbage being strewn around the streets, open drains and the lack of public toilets.
About 30 MAD volunteers assembled at Astley Hall and then proceeded to the site where the action took place. The team split up into groups and cleared up the place in two hours. The members were equipped with rubber gloves, face masks, used garbage bags and sacks to cleanly dispose of the trash dumped in the open.
"While the whole city was busy preparing to enjoy the India versus Pakistan cricket match, we were enjoying our Sunday in our own way- by cleaning up the city," said Shreya, a volunteer of the group. Another member, Abhishek commented, "Though I am a huge cricket fan, I don't regret missing a part of today's match for the cleanup drive because we are doing this for our city, for our country."
The group has been engaged in such environmental conservation and sanitation related activities since its inception in 2011. Members present in the activity on Sunday included Karan Kapoor, Shipra, Samiksha, Saurabh Dandriyal, Rahul Guru, Aadarsh and Jahanavi among others.