Students vouch for smokeless Bhogi

S Vishnu Sharmaa, INN/Chennai, @Svs037

It was a big gathering and the idea that paved way to it was very noble. There is a need to bring down pollution and one way to achieve that is by celebrating smokeless bhogi.

Sevalaya, well-known NGO into rendering service to the underprivileged people conducted a rally where more than 1000 students took only to highlight the need to go for smokeless Bhogi celebrations.

Sources say, M.Venkatesan, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Pattabiram range  flagged off the rally on 10 January. The rally started from Dr. V P Ramakrishna Kalyana Mandapam in Thiruninravur.

Students from Sevalaya’s Mahakavi Bharathiyar School, Dasar High School,  Amudha Matriculation school, Government High School, Pakkam and Government Higher Secondary School, Thiruninravur, participated in the rally.

They walked two kilometres through the streets of Thiruninravur holding placards with slogans on the evils of burning waste and plastic and the need to protect the environment.

The rally ended in Shanmuga Kalyana Mandapam, Thiruninravur. S Jeru Jones Priyadharshini, President, Nathamedu Panchayat and Arulrajan, Superintendent of Police, (Traffic), Avadi, were the special guests.

Speaking to the students in a meeting after the rally, Arulraj said that awareness on environmental issues reach higher levels when when students are involved.

Traditionally during Bhogi, the first day of the Pongal festival, houses are cleaned up and all unwanted things accumulated over the year are burnt. Broken plastics, old rubber tyres are also burnt and the fumes pollute the air causing a serious health hazard.

For the past 15 years, every year Sevalaya carries out a rally, around a week before Bhogi. Students march through the streets carrying placards containing slogans on the dangers of burning plastics and rubber and the urgent need to protect the environment.