TEEN TRIO SWEEP IN WINDS OF CHANGE

After cleaning drains and campaigning against tobacco use, the teens want more responsibility

"We praise foreign countries for their clean roads and criticise our own city, but how many of us realise that we are responsible for our own problems? How many times have you thought about getting down to clean the mess?" This isn't a dialogue from Rang De Basanti, but a pointer to the attitude of 19-year-olds Mohit Motwani, Manan Modi and Shlok Malik.

This enthusiastic bunch from Thadomal Shahani Engineering College (TSEC) on Linking Road, Bandra west, plan to form an ALM for their college area and a JAAG (Joint Area Action Group) unit under AGNI, an NGO. The group currently has 15 students, but that's just a beginning. They expect lots of support from other students. Their areas of concern are open gutters, unhygienic food served by hawkers, broken footpaths, garbage or absence of rickshaw stands.

From where did they start taking an interest in civic issues? "We were browsing through a website on Praja, an organisation which acts as an interface between the BMC and people," said Mohit. "We liked the idea and met Yazad Jal, the CEO, who put us to the BMC."

Mohit, Manan and Shlok have words of praise for the civic body. "The BMC is much better than we had imagined. We went to them with our ideas and found that they were ready to help."

"We submitted a project report and took 20 pictures to our corporator Ashish Shelar. We got drains opened on 37th Road and got them cleaned by BMC men. We are trying to organize rickshaws into a stand near our college and trying to curb tobacco use. We also ask hawkers to use paper plates because steel ones have to be washed which dirties the place," said Manan.

The students want to tidy up the area around their college because that's where they spend eight hours a day. Besides, they have two years to graduate -- enough time to tackle problems. So what's next on their radar? "We've got 25 days for our exams, so we're going a bit slow now," said Shlok. "Within the month we will get the road cleaned of rubble, dry and dead leaves and plant more trees around our college.

"We don't want garbage near Jai Sandwich Stall which is why we will ask BMC to provide roller dustbins in each building. With this, the van will stop for single point garbage collection from buildings."

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