Doon’s college students spare walls in poll season to adopt swachh idea

This has been the season of

college elections

, but much to the surprise of Doonites, and a pleasant one at that, the walls in most parts of the city have not been defaced. This is especially true of walls that have been murals and

graffiti

painted on them. NGOs say that this is a departure from last year’s trend when half of the painted walls in Doon were destroyed with college party members and leaders pasting election

posters

on the walls.

Unlike this year, last year, this wall in Nashville Road was full of college poll posters (BCCL/ Shikhar Dua)

We have tried to ensure that beautified city walls are not being defaced: Student leaders
Swati Negi from Mahadevi Kanya Pathshala (PG) College,

Dehradun

, the national delegate of NSUI from the city, says, "Last year, a lot of students pasted posters on walls that had been painted by graffiti artists, which led to a lot of arguments between the artists, the NGOs they were associated with and the college leaders. To avoid that situation again, and more importantly, to ensure that beautified walls of city are not defaced, we ensured that no party volunteer pasted posters on those walls. We also gave them strict instructions to not paste posters on walls of government organizations. Volunteers were only allowed to put posters on dirty walls, those which are not been in a good condition. To ensure these, senior members of our party always went with junior volunteers when they went out to paste posters."

Unlike last year, college students have ensured that they paste poll posters only on dirty walls and not the painted ones (BCCL/ Shikhar Dua)

‘It was a challenge to ensure that volunteers do not deface walls with poll posters’
Rahul, president of DAV College and student leader of ABVP, says, "Doon has seen some really nice art work on various walls and I didn’t want to spoil any of them. But, making every individual volunteer understand this was a big challenge. I have also faced this. I got a wall painted last year at the entrance of our college but it was again defaced with posters this year, thanks to the college elections. So, as a president of the college, I myself took the initiative and removed them with a couple of more people. I have also told all the volunteers of my party to be careful and not paste posters on walls that have graffiti on them."

No posters are being pasted on painted walls by students this election (BCCL/ Shikhar Dua)

Sachin Thapliyal, ex-general secretary of DAV College and student leader from Aryan party agrees. He says, "Young volunteers, who are given the responsibility to paste election posters across the city, often ignore the instructions given by seniors and paste posters on walls of government organisations or on walls that have been painted. To prevent the same, this year, we have been counselling the young volunteers – students of first and second year - and have been giving them strict instructions to not paste posters on walls. My team has also taken rounds of the city to ensure this."

A dirty wall with posters at Darshan Lal Chowk (BCCL/ Shikhar Dua)

We are happy to see that college students have spared painted walls this election session: NGOs
Abhijay Negi, founder of MAD by BTD (Making a Difference by Being the Difference), says, "Last year, we painted a wall at Nashville Road and during the election time, it was totally defaced with hundreds of posters. After the elections, we removed all of them and repainted the entire wall again. This year, however, college students seem to be more aware as a lot of them have not pasted posters on graffiti walls. While some of the walls or parts of them have still been defaced, the situation is much better than last year."

Jai Sharma, founder of JOY (Just Open Yourself), says, "Most of the walls painted by our team were defaced by posters of candidates last year. But this time conditions have improved to some extent. College students have spared the painted walls. The attempt to make Doon a cleaner city can only be achieved if all of us take responsibility collectively."