`Alagana Kovai' gets a boost as one more residential assn goes for it

Published on Page 1, TNIE, Coimbatore
Dated August 6, 2006

By Francis P Barclay

Coimbatore, Aug 6: From home to neck of the woods, it's the duty of the indwellers to see to it that everything is spic and span. Propagating this, the residents of Sivanandha Colony have come together to clean up their
locality.
Holding ``self help'' as their core principle, these indwellers, in association with the Residents Awareness Association of Coimbatore (RAAC), launched the `Alagana Kovai' project in their area today.
`Alagana Kovai' is aimed at encouraging the people to keep their environment clean. It was first started on April 30 in Bharathy Colony. With the help of RAAC the residents of the colony made a wonderful change in their locality, thus tempting 12 colonies in the city to follow suit them.
Today, as the 13th colony to emulate Bharathy Colony, the 150 families of Sivananda Colony came up to clean their locality. Members of the RAAC and the NCC volunteers of Gopal Naidu School joined them in their endeaour, and they all worked for about three hours.
Under the `Alagana Kovai' initiative, the residents would meet on the third Sunday of every month and clear garbage and bush on either side of the roads, fill potholes and desilt the drains.
Each household will be provided with two garbage bins - one for biodegradable waste and the other for non-biodegradable waste like plastic.
Ramasamy, who is the secretary of the Sivananda Colony Residents' Welfare Association, which was started in 2002, said ``We have heard about the success story of the residents of Bharathy Colony and wanted to emulate
them. So, first we distributed pamphlets in our colony to create awareness on clean and green environment, and today, we launched the `Alagana Kovai' project.''
He added ``It is the responsibility of the people to keep their premises clean especially when the Corporation is understaffed.''
Sivalingam, president of the association and Soundararajan, vice-president of the RAAC and Devaraj, president of the Ramalingam Colony Residents Welfare Association were present during the launch of the project.
Soudararajan said ``A nominal amount will be collected from the residents to bring tractors and dozers to remove garbage. At least one member from each family should participate in this drive. People should realise that
it is their duty to keep their environment clean. We would soon make all the people of Coimbatore realise this and make the city neat and clean.''