Members of the child cabinet of Tiljala Balika Vidyalaya with their teachers and councillor Bijan Lal Mukherjee after the garbage bins reached the school The Telegraph
A group of students from a government-aided school in Tiljala sought the help of the local councillor to keep their school clean.
The students requested the councillor to arrange for garbage bins for their school.
The members of the child cabinet of Tiljala Balika Vidyalaya had first raised the issue of the absence of trash bins in the school with their teachers.
The school was using cartons as garbage bins but they were getting torn after a couple of days, a student said.
“The members of the child cabinet asked if they could approach the civic body for dustbins. After talking to the teachers they wrote a letter to the councillor seeking an appointment,” said Avinanda Ghosh Dastidar, headmistress of the school.
Five students of Class VIII, accompanied by two teachers, met the councillor of Ward number 67, Bijan Lal Mukherjee, last Thursday. The councillor promised to help them.
A day later, 40 garbage bins reached the school.
“We realised that the cartons were not serving our purpose so we requested the councillor to help us,” said Class VIII student Suhana Pervin, a member of the child cabinet.
The dustbins were placed in the classrooms on Tuesday.
“If there are proper trash cans, garbage won’t get scattered around the school,” said Class VIII student Sanjukta Das and a member of the child cabinet.
Councillor Mukherjee said garbage would be picked up from the school every afternoon.
“The fact that the young are conscious about keeping their school clean and they took an initiative to resolve the problem is a commendable thing,” said Mukherjee.
“If more and more people think alike it will help us to keep our surroundings clean. With the rains, the next few months will be vital for us to control the spread of dengue. This can be done with a greater awareness among people about keeping their areas clean,” he said.
The child cabinet has students from Classes VI to VIII. The teachers have entrusted them with responsibilities like maintaining discipline and monitoring whether there is any wastage of food during mid-day meals, among others.