JAMMU AND KASHMIR: In a noble initiative to make his village in Jammu and Kashmir’s Anantnag district waste-free, a sarpanch Farooq Ahmad Ganai, who is a lawyer by profession, is offering gold coins to people of his native hamlet in exchange for litter A 50-year-old Farooq Ahmad Ganai, sarpanch of Sadiwara, said that after completing his work in court, he spends two hours daily collecting waste, garbage and litter from the village to focus on cleanliness.
Ganai launched the cleanliness campaign in the village in 2020.“The open fields, public places, water bodies, playgrounds and roads were filled with litter, including polythene, used diapers, plastic, garbage, etc. It struck me that if we don’t act now, our future generation will curse. I along with the PRIs and local population launched the cleanliness drive to get rid of litter in our village,” Ganai said.
He constructed community garbage pits and soakage pits in the village besides ensuring that every house in the hamlet has a dustbin. The use of single-use polythene has now been banned in the village. Ganai intends to replace polythene with paper and cloth bags in his panchayat.
There have been encouraging signs of people participating in the cleanliness drive in the village. Feeling that increased participation of the local population in the cleanliness drive can help make the village clean, Ganai came up with the innovative idea of offering gold coins to people in exchange for litter in January this year.
“In order to make my village litter and garbage free, I am offering gold coins to people in exchange for litter from my own pocket. My wife has offered me 20 grams of gold for this noble initiative. She said it is better to use this gold to safeguard the environment for our present generations rather than wearing it,” Ganai said.
He offered gold coins to people in exchange for 20 quintals of litter and waste.“Now I am offering gold coins to anybody in exchange for one quintal of plastic and polythene,” Ganai said, adding he made this offer as an attraction for people to make the village litter free.
He said that this initiative has been received well by the public. “People collecting garbage from public places, houses, open areas, etc need to be appreciated and encouraged and me offering a gold coin is a step in this direction”.
“We pledge to make our village panchayat green village, garbage-free by or before December 2023. We have taken custody of state land, where the garbage will be dumped, segregated and recycled. The recycling unit will be set there. Diaper destroyer machines are also being installed and it will be for the first time that such a machine will be installed in J&K,” Ganai said.