In Cooke Town, you’ll see an unusual way to get the message across, to random dumpers of garbage. Especially those who miss the bus on the morning collection, when carts go down the road to collect your bag of disposables.
The location here is Ashoka Road – a nice peaceful road, where you’d like to go for your morning walk, without turning up your nose and holding your breath.
As a "pilot project" the Residents Welfare Association of Cooke Town has cordoned off this spot, which was a major landing point for random dumpers. Once a spot starts off as a dumping ground it only gets worse, day by day. And bad habits are hard to break.
The barricade with a stretch of cordon-tapes looks formidable – and a sure attention getter if you stand in front of it to dump your trash. The poster with a "REWACT" logo gives this effort an official sign-off.
Strange to think that the random dumper is not someone else. He or she is one of us – smiling at us at the crossroads, standing behind you in the queue at the post office, or at the next table in a coffee shop.
Guess you have to draw the line, somewhere. ⊕
Hey Sharath, how are you doing, my friend?
Benjamin, a reader asks: “I am one of the random dumpers until those signs came up. I always find a pile of garbage and sometimes a garbage truck would come to remove it. There are no garbage cans and I have no idea when the trucks come. Can you please suggest whats the ideal way to dump garbage in Bangalore, in particular Cooke Town?”
Benjamin, I gather you’re not too far away from Ashoka Road, where this sign is up. In the mornings, from roughly 7.30 to 8.30, I have seen wheelbarrows and mini-vans collecting garbage in a fairly organised manner on Davis Road – the road perpendicular to Ashoka Road. In case you don’t spot them on your road, ask the collectors on Davis Road about a collection point and timings. I am two streets away and the collectors here insist that we hang our trash bags on our gates. I hate to do this but am forced to, in case I need to go out early. Sharath