Continuation from yesterday’s New Year’s Resolution: Garbage free Ukhrul!
Speaking to one of the key organizer, Lemyao Shimray, writer activist said “we are very disappointed with the reckless attitude of the residents, the murals painted under the ‘project paint ukhrul’ is an initiative taken up to beautify the town but now the time, energy, money and the resources spent in that effort feels like it’s gone down in vain.”
Speaking on the effort it takes, Lemyao added that before painting each mural the surrounding area is thoroughly cleaned which sometimes takes up the whole day, especially when they were engaged in painting the ADC office walls, the Surroundings of the office were littered with urine bottles, Diapers, syringes and garbage of all sorts. “Needless to say, it was a very disgusting and nauseating effort cleaning up just to start the painting.”
When it comes to the funding of ‘Project paint Ukhrul’, crowd funding amounts to just Rs 15000 or so but the main source of the funding are from well wishers contributing for the sake of the common good.
There are 103 Artists, 2 professional calligraphers under the project and at times, the artists and calligraphers are paid a stipend of Rs 500 and Rs 2000 each respectively.
So far, they have not received any financial aid nor received any appreciation from the Autonomous District Council (ADC), originally responsible for the development, sanitation and beautification of the town.
‘Project paint Ukhrul’ besides the beautification effort has unearthed and fixed many loopholes in the functioning of public administrative services like the irregular garbage cycle, the non-working street lamps or the unexplained leave of absence of the sanitation officer of the ADC who is responsible for the incompetency in doing his/her work that may have caused the garbage menace.
Speaking of the public’s cooperation and appreciation, Lemyao added that sometimes the sugarcane juice vendors out of their own sheer generosity offer the artists free drinks and even the Taxi drivers offer them free rides for the sake of ‘Project paint Ukhrul.’ “It is a very heartwarming gesture,” added Lemyao.
Message to the public from Project paint ukhrul:
Please let us respect the efforts of our young self taught artists. In show of their appreciation let us keep the surroundings of the murals and the town clean. Let us not litter or keep thrash in the surroundings as it overshadows the beautiful paintings that they have done with so much effort and enthusiasm.
“Cleaner homes make cleaner environment; if each home in a particular society is clean, the environment will automatically be clean.
As the saying goes, ‘charity begins at home, which means we should help and care for our own family first, before we start helping other people. Similarly, cleanliness must begin at everyone’s own home and likewise unless we learn to keep our very own town clean, we cannot hope to be an example to others”.
Soror Shaiza