On the 150th Birth Anniversary Celebration of the Father of the Nation ‘Mahatma Gandhi’ along with the rest parts of the country and educational institutions, the premiere educational institution of Upper Assam Dibrugarh University (DU) reminisced the principles and ideals of Gandhi ji, by organizing an Awareness Session cum Speech Competition under the initiative of Key Resource Centre (KRC) in collaboration with NSS Cell and NSS DU PG Unit, at Indira Miri Conference Hall, on Oct’2 , 2019.
At about 9 am of Oct’2, the program kicked off with the lighting of the traditional lamp before the portrait of Mahatma Gandhi and paying of floral tributes by invited guest of honors Dean of Student Affairs, Prof.Nirode Boruah, NSS Program Coordinator David Kardong, SBM Nodal Office Prof. Shukla Acharjee, District Consultant PHED Diganta Saikia and the DU students and volunteers of NSS Cell. Later, the NSS volunteers by performing the bhajan ‘Raghupati Raghav’ paid their tributes to Gandhi ji.
After the felicitation ceremony, the program started with the welcome address of NSS Program Coordinator, Prof. David Kardong who in his address congratulated all who were part of the program and talked about how this year the celebration of Gandhi Jayanti holds special significance. He stated that life and ideals of the Mahatma finds place in all aspects of life and that the birth of NSS has deep rooted connection with the ideals of Gandhi. This year the step taken by the Government of India to free environment from plastic pollution will help in realising the goals of Swachhta.
Speaking at the event, Dean of Student Affairs, Prof. Nirode Boruah stressed on the need for a collective effort to aware the people on plastic pollution and how it is affecting the environment and health in our day to day life. He said use of plastic means science has been using us and not the other way. The ban on single use plastic and the collective stand of each one of us for the cause is what Dr. Boruah pressed for and called upon to pledge to fight the war against plastic pollution and single use plastic for a healthy pollutant free environment in the days to come.
Attending the program, the District Consultant PHED, Diganta Saikia in his speech made special mention of less use of plastic, the importance of four R- refuse, reduce, reuse and recycle to minimize the use of plastic and single use plastic. A special mention was made by him on the set up of ‘Material Recovery Facility Centre’ within the DU premises for collection of single use plastic that would be collected from the University by concerned authorities for recycling purpose. This way Diganta Saikia said DU could be successful in declaring itself a Plastic free zone. He called upon the authorities to take initiative in this regard.
A speech competition on the theme – Plastic Mukt Bharat, was later held with the participation of the NSS volunteers which was judged by SBM Nodal Officer Dr. Shukla Acharjee and Chief Coordinator of SBM DU, Ujjaini Sharma.
Later, SBM D.U. Chief Coordinator on behalf of KRC and SBM ( G), presented a short Power Point Presentation (PPT) on Plastic Pollution. Through the presentation the concept of plastic, it’s types, it’s impact and the traditional ways to beat the menace was put forward.
The concluding speech of the event was given away by Dr. Shukla Acharjee. Dr. Acharjee called upon the students to contribute in their individual way towards dealing with the environmental hazards like plastic pollution and total ban on use of single use plastic. She said our bags and pockets can play the role of dustbins while we are traveling or fail to dispose our plastic wastes like chocolate, chip or biscuit wrappers in a designated waste disposal bin. This small step may go a long way to help dealing with this ever growing pollution that has contaminated our landfills and water bodies. Dr. Acharjee further said individual segregation of wet waste and dry waste helps in recycling of wet wastes into composting. This even helps the safai workers to collect waste without the risks to their lives as most of the time broken glass pieces, blades and other sharp objects are found to be in the garbage bins that are thrown away without segregation.
The SBM Nodal Officer Dr Shukla Acharjee, later declared the names of the speech competition winners.
The winners were Jyotirmoy Roy Chudhury (Ist Position), Khem Bahadur Chetry (2nd Position) and Banashree Chutia (3rd Position).
NSS Program Coordinator, Dr. David Kardong; SBM Nodal officer Dr.Shukla Acharjee and SBM Chief Coordinator Ujjaini Sharma , gave away the prizes of the speech competition.
The entire program was hosted by NSS Program Officer, Amar Upadhaya, while the vote of thanks was given away by Viman Chakroborty.
