Villagers in japanese Assam’s Khumtai cleansing up for a clear constituency contest entailing a first prize of 1 km concrete road.
| Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
A race for the highest prize, a 1 km concrete road, noticed greater than two lakh individuals in an japanese Assam Assembly constituency scrubbing, sweeping, raking, washing and wiping for a few fortnight since February 17.
Villages in japanese Assam typically preserve a stage of cleanliness however there have been sure habits that Mrinal Saikia, Khumtai constituency’s BJP legislator, needed the residents to kick. These included holding the facades of the homes or public buildings clear and the yard littered.
So, he determined to organise an inter-village and inter-tea backyard competitors for a clear Khumtai.
The constituency, in Golaghat district, is about 260 km east of Guwahati.
“The constituency has a total of 148 villages and 24 tea estates. I planned the contest, perhaps the first of its kind in India involving an entire constituency, to make the people value cleanliness,” Mr. Saikia informed The Hindu on Monday.
The contest was organised from February 17 to March 6 with the villages given 12 days to scrub up.
| Photo Credit:
SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
“Some of these villages were already clean barring a few spots here and there. We hope the contest encouraged the other villages to do better,” he stated.
The contest was organised from February 17 to March 6 with the villages given 12 days to scrub as much as be within the reckoning for the highest prize – a 1 km concrete road from the native MLA fund. Four different prizes have been introduced for the villages starting from growth schemes price ₹10 lakh to ₹3 lakh.
The prizes introduced for the tea property have been growth schemes price ₹5 lakh, ₹3 lakh and ₹2 lakh.
Five jury teams comprising civil servants, academicians, environmentalists, and journalists assessed these villages and narrowed down the listing to a complete of 121 villages and tea estates.
“The villages were judged on several parameters such as a clean roadside, garbage management, and proper disposal or no use of plastic. We checked the toilets, backyards of houses, namghars (neighbourhood community prayer hall), markets, schools and other public places too,” Dinesh Gogoi, a retired physics instructor of Golaghat’s D.R. College stated.
“Some of the jurists also advised the villagers to use community halls and namghars for public awareness and discuss the kind of locally-relevant projects they would like their representative and the government to pursue,” he stated.
All the jury teams handed over their evaluation stories in sealed envelopes to the MLA by Sunday night time. “Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma will open these envelopes and announce the winners tentatively between March 10 and 15,” Mr Saikia stated.
The contest has had an impression in areas past Khumtai within the Golaghat district. The municipal physique of Golaghat city introduced an analogous contest amongst its 13 wards.
