Noida: Collective efforts of the residents of Sector 51 have completely turned around the condition of vacant land and plots in the neighbourhood. After removing boulders, stones and bricks from half a dozen vacant plots, the residents have started growing vegetables over some of them.
On Saturday, the group also came together to set up 100 bird houses to mark World Sparrow Day. Their efforts were recognised on Sunday when the Union ministry of housing and urban affairs shared their work over its social media platforms and said they had implemented a successful formula to keep the neighbourhood clean and green.
The ministry posted a short video on the Swacch Survekshan Twitter page describing the solutions being implemented by the residents welfare association of blocks A and B in Sector 51.
President of the association Anita Joshi said that the turnaround has been achieved after a year-long journey. “Every Saturday, a group of 35 to 40 residents and children collected boulders and filth from the open space. We have managed to carry out composting and readied five plots and one large vacant plot in the locality this way. Several plants and vegetables are grown over them throughout the year,” said Joshi.
Home to about 700 families, the makeover accomplished by the sector residents will be presented as a case study before others. Chief executive officer of the authority Ritu Maheshwari said that their work will be included as a case study and other groups will be encouraged to follow it.
Though the Sector has about 350 plots, several group housing projects are also present in it and contribute in the exercise.
Sharing the steps, Joshi said that starting with composting, manuring, plantation, green spacing work was done in phases over the year. “After observing the makeover, the turnout of the residents has been increasing with time. We had started out with an extremely small group,” she added.