Come October and the city will wear a sporty look as the Commonwealth Youth Games (CYG) kicks off. As the city gets an opportunity to play host to the big extravaganza, the games will benefit the city in more ways than one. CYG, along with the Pune Municipal Corporation, has kicked off its environmental programme on electronic waste (ewaste) management under its `Green Games' initiative.
Under this initiative, the CYG will promote PMC's e-waste awareness programme through street plays, collage display on streets, leaflets and screen display presentations. Pune, being a IT hub of the country, has already got about 3,600 tonnes of e-waste waiting for disposal. According to Purnima Pendse, who heads the Green Games initiatives, "The whole idea of promoting this is to create awareness among citizens about what exactly is e-waste. Not many know about it in the first place, and the CYG has given us the opportunity to create such awareness."
As part of the initiative, launched at the Nehru stadium on March 7, special awareness programmes will be carried out by the Green Games team in 40 selected colleges and 10 top IT companies. The theme will also be part of environment-related subjects in schools. "We will try to enhance the current curriculum and try to spread awareness among the children and, in a way, get them indirectly involved in the CYG. The aim is to reduce, reuse and recycle e-wastes which is piling up every single day. The games is for the youth and Pune's population is highly youth-driven, we thought why not get them involved directly," Jyoti Prabha, project officer, Green Games said.
On PMC's role in the project, Ajay Oza, who heads PMC's air quality management cell, said, "We have already been working on this project, but with CYG we have received a platform to create awareness among the youth and IT companies. Under the initiative we are also planning to come up with a booklet, especially for the IT companies, which will have simple steps on how ewaste can be reduced."
Source: TOI, 13/03/2008
