English daily published in Bengaluru & Doha
Run for cleanliness: No black spots in Indiranagar!
By Y. Maheshwara Reddy | NT
Bengaluru: The twenty odd participants of UnPlog10k, a marathon to find litter spots across the city, were happy to report that they found no black spots, or open garbage dumps during their ten kilometre run. At the end, pourakarmikas were felicitated for their good work and given a Rolling Trophy.
Organized by the BBMP in collaboration with The Ugly Indian, a citizen activist group, the recurring marathon is aimed at incentivising the BBMP to keep the streets clean and also to encourage active citizen participation in civic welfare. “A few runners reported sighting a couple of small spots but on further enquiry, they found that it was not litter, but stones and debris from construction work taking place on private property, outside the purview of the BBMP Solid Waste Management Team,” said a volunteer from The Ugly Indian.
Participants completed the run in less than 75 minutes, stopping to look for garbage along the way. The route passed through 12th Main, 80 Feet Road, Jeevan Bhima Nagar Main Road, Suranjan Das Road and a part of Old Madras Road. “The runners were neutral inspectors who had no incentive to overlook any garbage - in fact, they looked and failed to find any,’’ the Ugly Indian volunteer said. “It is the best way to judge the cleanliness of a street – let residents decide. We want to organize more events in different neighbourhoods, several have been planned in the coming months.” “It takes a lot of courage and self-confidence to do this, our compliments to the BBMP for organizing it,” he said. “This is the fourth run and they are ready to do many more,” the volunteer added.
Appreciating Ugly Indian volunteers and the BBMP for organising the event, Aparajita K is of the opinion that initiatives like UnPlog10k need to be organized more frequently. “It is my fourth time participating in similar events organised at other localities. I found two black spots but not on Jeevan Bhima Nagar Main Road. It is at a garbage transfer centre,’’ said Aparajita.
