NGO wins cleanliness cup

LUDHIANA: Promising to keep the PAU hockey stadium clean during a seven-day tournament that concluded on Saturday, a city-based NGO ‘Lets Clean Ludhiana Foundation’, not only set a positive precedent for the organizers, but also inspired them to take up the responsibility themselves during the next edition of the tournament.
“We achieved what we set out for in the tournament.We kept the stadium clean during the tournament and vacated it in its original state. It is a success for us that we were able to inspire the organizers, said the NGO president Gulshan Arora, adding they seek to inspire organizers of various events across the city.
What came as a good response was the cooperation of the spectators in keeping the stadium clean, said NGO secretary Deepinder Singh Chahal. “Though it took them a couple of days to act, the spectators started making a point to use the dustbins placed all over the stadium and stopped littering,” he added.
The NGO had hired three men to keep the stadium clean of all the littering during the tournament, and on Sunday, a day after the tournament, it ensured the stadium was swept clean before it was handed over to the district sports department. Their efforts got the NGO appreciation from district sports officer Kartar Singh as well, who said, “We welcome this endeavour by the NGO and this precedence should be followed by other organizers as well. A playing field is a sacred place for athletes.”
According to Chahal, the total cost for managing the cleanliness project for the seven days was not more than Rs 15,000. This cost is a small percentage of the total expenditure such a tournament, which had a prize money of Rs 8 lakh.