After two weeks, the Versova beach clean-up was back in action on Saturday, with lawyer Afroz Shah and volunteers visiting Siddharth Nagar slums to check the status of a nullah that connects to the beach. Yuva Sena Chief Aaditya Thackeray too promised to join the operation on Sunday.
According to Shah, he visited the slum to talk to the residents about the garbage thrown by them into the drain. "Siddharth Nagar is one of the slums through which the nallah connects the Versova beach. The aim of meeting the residents was not to create awareness but to have a conversation with the people to talk about garbage which they throw and later it gets choked inside the nullah. Many people came forward. People have a casual approach of throwing garbage in the nallah which needs to be changed by training them properly. I will be doing follow up rounds at Siddharth Nagar to continue to train them."
Thackeray who had met with Shah after he suspended his drive tweeted, "Spoke to Afroz I'm joining him this coming Sunday to clean up. I'm so glad we both kept our promises- me to assist him and his promise to not give up. This is for Mumbai and our Planet."
During the clean-up drive on Saturday, volunteers collected 40,000 kg of garbage from the Versova beach.
Saha said, "Marine litter is a global problem. It can be handled in different stages by- making people to stop littering, cleaning of nallah, cleaning of beaches and provoking citizens to step forward to clean the surrounding."
IN FULL SWING
During the clean-up drive on Saturday, volunteers collected 40,000 kg of garbage from the Versova beach. Afroz Shah, the face of the efforts, also visited slum dwellers in the vicinity and talked to them about handling of garbage
