Residents collect almost 1.5 lakh garbage from Versova beach in 3 days

Local Press Co 5-point Snippet

1. This Sunday, on the occasion of World Environment Day, over 300 volunteers gathered to rid the Versova beach from the heaps of filth spread across it’s 2.4 km stretch.

2. A citizen group called Versova Resident Volunteers (VRV), started by advocate Afroz Shah and actor Naresh Suri, took the onus of cleaning the Versova Beach 9 months ago after realising that sole dependence on the civic body may be futile. During their previous drives, the group has collected over 1.35 lakh kgs of garbage from the beach.

3. On Thursday, the group started another 3-day cleanup drive with the intention of collecting over 1 lakh kg of garbage from the beach. The VRV also requested the BMC for help and managed to get it in the form of 80 workers, two JCBs, five 10-tonne dumpers and a compactor.

4. After collecting 17,500 kg of thrash on Thursday, the group took a break on Friday and started early on the weekend. On Saturday, due to the limited number of volunteers, 40,000 kg of trash was collected. But on Sunday, over 300 volunteers turned up and helped collect a total of 87,000 kg thrash. At the end of the drive, the joint efforts of volunteers helped rid Versova beach of over 1.45 lakh kg of garbage.

5. Having Bollywood personalities like Pooja Bedi, Karan Oberoi and Deepak Dobriyal also helped the cause, with both citizens and celebrities working together throughout the day. The group’s members are now planning to meet the BMC chief to formulate a plan to ensure that the beach stays clean going forward.