In a bid to promote healthy living and environmental awareness, Cityzen, the CSR arm of software solutions firm Fluentgrid, has announced a contest as part of which resident welfare associations (RWAs) will receive cash awards totalling ₹ 5 lakh depending on their performances in key civic parameters such as greenery, cleanliness and rainwater harvesting.
A notable feature of the contest is that well-known and high profile RWAs will keep away from it, making way for the aspiring colonies on the city outskirts and in thickly populated areas.
Registration for contest
The RWAs will be judged on clean and green surroundings excluding parks, waste segregation, rainwater harvesting measures and activities to create awareness on these parameters.
However, the RWAs who have registered themselves with the Andhra Pradesh Federation of RWAs (APFERWAS) are eligible for the contest. The registration is open till April 30.
The contest carries six platinum awards of ₹40,000 each, six gold awards of ₹25,000 each, six silver awards of ₹15,000 each) and four special awards of ₹5,000 each, exclusively for gated communities and large apartment complexes registered as RWAs.
Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) Commissioner M. Hari Narayanan, along with Director, Corporate Social Value of Fluentgrid, Vani Gannamani and representatives of the APFERWAS, announced the contest here on Friday.
‘Unique initiative’
Describing the contest as a unique initiative, Mr. Hari Narayanan said that the GVMC would extend moral support to it and the activities of citizens would carry marks in the ‘Swachh Survekshan’ survey.
“Creating awareness is the need of the hour,” he said and recalled the words of former in-charge of Swachh Bharat Mission Praveen Prakash that achieving the mission objectives was a continuous activity in which citizens’ participation was the keylike in the earlier campaigns of Pulse Polio immunization and prevention of AIDS.
APFERWAS associate president K.S.R. Murthy said RWAs were the fourth pillar of local governance for they acted as a bridge between the citizens and civic bodies.
Selection process
“Screening, marking and short-listing of RWAs will be done by APFERWAS zonal coordinators and the final selection will be done by a team of experts and distinguished citizens. The winners’ list will be announced, coinciding with the national conference of RWAs in November,” he said. APFERWAS Visahapatnam Chapter president Uday Shirname said the annual awards would be continued in future too.