BATOMARI (DHAKUAKHANA), Nov 8 - Though ignored by the Government, their effort has been adored by the surrounding villages.
The level of cleanliness achieved by the villagers of Dhenudhora Chiring Mazgaon here has inspired villagers of adjacent areas to take a leaf out of the satisfying experience.
Swachh Bharat Mission, the national campaign to achieve cleanliness across India and launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, has inspired ruralites of a remote village in Lakhimpur district to keep their area clean and garbage free without availing any help from the State agencies and concerned departments.
Cent percent cleanliness was achieved by Dhenudhora Chiring Mazgaon, a village at Batomari under Dhakuakhana subdivision in Lakhimpur district. The village, which earlier had the dubious distinction of very quarrelsome inhabitants for the outside world, has lately earned the attention of everyone by keeping the entire area clean and dirt free and by operating an eco-friendly waste management system involving every household in an exemplary collective effort.
Dhenukhona Chiring Mazgaon, which has 145 households, came out with the initiative of a Field Management Committee, a body which usually looks after collective agricultural activities, to undertake a cleanliness drive in the village. Led by its president Rajesh Senapati and secretary Ghanakanta Phukan, the committee has 104 registered members who actively participate in cleanliness drives in the village.
Usually in most rural areas in Assam, activities like cleaning roads, ponds and other water bodies and public places are conducted by the nearest Rural Block Development office in association with the local Gaon Panchayats. Government flagship programmes like Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) are applied to implement such works with considerable public spending.
But for the villagers of Dhenudhora Chiring Mazgaon, the collective effort was voluntary, i.e., without waiting for the State agencies to render help, the villagers started cleaning their area a year ago. For that to happen, the committee called upon every household to keep their front and backyards clean from all garbage and to make the roads clean and free from water-logging. They also started building toilets in every household, and hence, there is no open defecation in the village.
Most importantly, the committee started collecting all the bio-degradable waste from the village roads and households and used them in making vermicompost, an organic fertiliser. In fact the village started a vermicompost facility and is presently planning to construct more such facilities, whose end product would be used for farming, said Rajesh Sensowa, president of the committee.
The village is also planning to segregate various wastes, like those generated by the kitchen, which will be collected to feed poultry, fish and pigs of the area. Since the village does not generate non-biodegradable solid waste like plastic, as found in urban areas, the committee is planning to keep a strict vigil on such waste, which would be collected in a particular place to be sold for recycling.
Apart from maintaining cleanliness and hygiene, the inhabitants of Dhenudhora Chiring Mazgaon are also preserving traditional plants, fruits and herbs for the sustainable ecosystem.
However, the village has till date not received any assistance, either technical or financial from the concerned State agencies.
It may be recalled that Swachh Bharat Abhiyan has received financial assistance from the World Bank, besides numerous CSR assistance along with the State�s Sarva Siksha Abhiyan Mission and Rashtriya Madhyamik Siksha Abhiyan schemes. An amount of Rs 9,000 crore was allocated for the SBA in the Union Budget of 2016. In February last, the Union Government announced that 25% funds of SBM would be allotted for rural campaigning following a suggestion by a committee of the NITI Ayog. Assam subsequently got Rs 20 lakh out of the total Rs 23 lakh under the mission in 2015.
But for Dhenudhora Chiring Mazgaon, not a single penny was reportedly provided. The nearest Gaon Panchayat office and Rural Block Development office too have not bothered to enquire about the positive developments going on in the said village, besides the exemplary collective voluntary effort by the villagers in achieving total cleanliness, besides effective waste management.
However, this exemplary feat by the villagers of Dhenudhora Chiring Mazgaon has inspired nearby villages to replicate the same in their respective areas.
