CANACONA: More than hundred trainees and instructors from Canacona ITI descended at Chaudi on Saturday and cleared the town of trash, and in an about two hour operation rounded up over 20 bags which consisted a majorly of synthetic waste and sent it to garbage treatment plant.
The drive which was conducted in association with NGO Goenkar was flagged off by Canacona legislator and Deputy Speaker Isidore Fernandes and chairperson of CMC Nitu Desai, on Saturday.
While flagging off the drive Fernandes advised the students of the Industrial Training Institute, Canacona to inculcate cleanliness as a habit and conduct such drives on regular basis.
“I am going to write to the ADEI of Canacona and the heads of different educational institutions in Canacona to conduct cleanliness drives consistently so that the taluka which hosts lakhs of foreign as well as domestic tourists every year remains clean and tidy,” Fernandes said.
The drive which commenced at 10 am and concluded at 12 noon saw the trainees collecting 20 bags of garbage from the entire town.
After seeing several bags of litter, Goenkar President Jack Fernandes requested the ITI Principal Edwin Fernandes to undertake a similar drive in the town in next 15 days time for which the principal readily obliged.
Speaking to this correspondent, Principal Fernandes said that this drive was initiated after director of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Deepak Desai advised them to take up the cleanliness drive when he officially had visited the institute last month.
The highlight of the drive was after seeing the ITI trainees, instructors and NGO members collecting the garbage a few foreign tourists who were shopping at that time appreciated the work and joined the drive physically collecting the trash themselves.
Puja Chari who is working as a counter sales girl in a shop in the town later joined NGO Goenkar and assured to contribute one hour of her time every Sunday for cleanliness in Canacona which was highly appreciated by one and all.
Meanwhile, NGO Goenkar which is in the forefront to tackle the menace of garbage in and around Canacona taluka met migrants who are collecting scrap from the villages of Canacona and convinced them to collect plastic bags together with other scrap they collect.
Goenkar President Jack Fernandes said that they have offered to pay the rag pickers from their own funds for the amount of single time use plastic they collect.
