Hyderabad: The Swach internship programme started by the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) a week ago had its first activity in the early hours of Saturday, where the volunteers participated in a cleaning drive at the iconic Charminar.
Two thousand volunteers showed up for the ‘SHIP’ activity and registered themselves. However, only 1,700 were found eligible and of those around 700 registered for Saturdays and 1,000 registered for Sundays. Eventually, the participation was limited to 250. Along with the interns, GHMC officials also participated in the cleanup drive in the lanes surrounding the heritage site.
Mr Musharraf Faruqui, additional commissioner, GHMC and project director of Charminar Pedestrianisation Project, said, “Usually, there will be two sessions of cleaning by the GHMC sweepers. Now we have halted the second shift and let the interns do that work. They picked up good amount of waste and did a great job.
Mr. Faruqui also said that, once people pick up something on their own, from next time they will think twice about throwing something into the open as they get sensitised.
Mr Niranjan Naik, a civil services aspirant, said, “I have registered for the two days event. I hope tomorrow the event gets better and as more number of people will join and more cleaning happens.”
Official note said that the total waste collected was approximately 50 bags each weighing around 6kg to 7 kg totalling 350 kg, among which 53 kg was plastic waste collected within two hours by the interns.
