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| One of the hoardings put up by Jorhat Municipal Board. Picture by UB Photos |
Jorhat, Oct. 2: Jorhat Municipal Board (JMB) has employed a young talent, Guinness World Record holder and Limca Book of Records entrant Abhijit Baruah in its attempt to keep the town clean.
Big hoardings with photos of Abhijit, a local lad, have been put up with slogans to keep Jorhat clean and green.
Board chairman Prasanta Bora told The Telegraph here today that Abhijit is a role model to attract people, especially the younger generation.
Hence, the board has decided to boost its cleanliness campaign using Abhijit’s name and pictures.
Bora said the board since last year had been taking a series of measures like putting up huge containers to dump garbage in various localities and installing modern garbage collecting vehicles and also imposing fines to keep the town clean.
“Now with the festive season coming up there will be huge gatherings and large quantities of garbage is expected to accumulate on roadsides. We wanted to start a campaign to urge people to be careful so that they do not throw things here and there and develop a sense to keep our Jorhat clean,” the board chairman said.
He said Abhijit decided to make a few world records in the middle of this month and wanted some financial aid to publicise the same. The board took the opportunity to use him as a model for cleanliness.
Bora said Abhijit, in recent times, has been able to make an impact on the young with lots of youths trying to attempt new records across the state and is often invited by educational institutes to inspire children.
Abhijit said the board arranged funds from various organisations to publicise his attempts and has put up slogans for cleanliness.
In his reaction, Abhijit, a policeman, said he was glad to be seen as a role model and was always ready to contribute to community causes.
“I am grateful to the board for helping me in my publicity drive for my attempt to create at least five world records on October 13 and 14 at Jorhat Stadium,” Baruah said. He said he would disclose the details of the records he plans to create to the media on Sunday.
On January 30-31, Abhijit had run 156.2km barefoot in 24 hours on the bypass here and on April 17 the London-based headquarters of the Guinness World Record declared him the first man in the world to run barefoot at least 150km in 24 hours.
Abhijit had gained entry into Limca Book of Records in March this year for running continuously for 26 hours and 31 minutes a distance of 200km from Jorhat to Kaziranga National Park and back, on May 28, 2011.
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