Bengaluru: Students from schools across the city and country, who have addressed civic issues successfully in their neighbourhoods, took part in Naagarikara Utsava 2018 here on Wednesday.
The Utsava, which was part of ‘I Change My City’ initiative by NGO Janaagraha, was organised in association with Mount Carmel College. Several competitions, like the national level student civic challenge, drawing and quiz, were part of the civic fest. The students also interacted with city Mayor Sampath Raj.
Under the Student Civic Challenge competition, 31,308 students across 27 cities submitted 4,077 projects. Of them, ten teams, who were evaluated on innovativeness, sustainability, practicality and local government engagement, presented their projects at the Utsava.
The students offered solutions to traffic, garbage, pothole, streetlights and waste bin problems. The students engaged with local ward councilors, civic agencies, citizens in their neighbourhoods and came up with sustainable solutions.
Visitors voted for the popular choice award from the projects and Riverdale Public School from Bengaluru emerged the winner. These students cleared garbage and stagnant water from the road, organised regular sweeping and garbage collection, cleaned and separated drain pipes from drinking water pipes and replaced streetlights.
Members of Solid Waste Management Round Table (SWMRT), Citizens for Bengaluru and the HSR Layout community showcased their efforts to address civic issues. Devi Meenakshi, a member of Citizens for Bengaluru, said, “We explained the citizens’ manifesto to students and they were very engaging. What we are trying to do is to promote active democracy.”
Sampath Raj told Deccan Chronicle, “We received a lot of inputs from children. These students from different states have offered many workable ideas. The future generation has to take part in the development of our cities. Civic agencies will have a tough time if children are not involved.”
BBMP Commissioner Manjunatha Prasad stressed on the importance of voting and waste segregation and asked children to question their parents about enrolment in voter list and segregation of waste.
