After the clean-up, they planted saplings around the waterbody, and each resident adopted one to be responsible for its care and maintenance
Kharghar residents after the clean-up drive
Residents of Kharghar's Sector 35 are blazing quite the trail — hundreds of them came together to clean up the pond in their neighbourhood of waste and garbage dumped in it during Ganeshotsav festivities, collecting nearly three tons of it in a day.
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After the clean-up, they planted saplings around the waterbody, and each resident adopted one to be responsible for its care and maintenance. More than 200 residents have created a WhatsApp group to carry out frequent green and clean drives in the area.
And they all are doing it on their own with each one shelling Rs 50 or Rs 100 from his/her pocket for every initiative, without any funding or help from CIDCO, government or corporates.
A resident, Dharmendra Kar said, "It is every individual's responsibility to clean and maintain his/her surroundings. When 87-year-old Gandhian T N Ganjoo and a five-year-old Khushi lined up early at 7 am for the clean-up drive, we were inspired to work towards a clean, and better, India. That's the power of an individual; we all have embraced cleaning as our religion. This is not to mark any particular day, but to make it a part of our lifestyle.
"We conduct at least 10 events a month by engaging citizens and employees for nation-building and forest development in our area. We can bring significant changes in our society and environment... that's the need of the hour. Government bodies alone can't do it, we all need to rise to the challenge."
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