BHUBANESWAR: IIT Bhubaneswar students, who have defaulted on academic deadlines, took up a massive cleanliness drive on the behest of a proposal put forward by R V Rajakumar, Director, at the Jatni playground and surroundings located on the Argul Jatni road here Tuesday.
The Jatni ground has been serving as a place for mass addresses, events and festivities and has been heavily littered and strewn around with plastics posing a major health concern for the nearby residents including the commuters. This was removed by IIT students and the area was cleaned and sanitised.
The cleanliness drive was carried out with vim and vigour by the NSS students of IIT Bhubaneswar. The objective of the campaign is to make the initiatives of the administration fruitful with the active participation of the students.
Speaking on the occasion, Prof Raja Kumar, Director, IIT Bhubaneswar, said, “Participating in a Clean Up drive will sensitise and build environmental stewardship and teach students the importance of keeping our surroundings clean, reducing, recycling of plastics and an environment friendly lifestyle, taking it as a responsibility. I am sure, that this action would be inspiring and motivating to the inhabitants of the area and it would set a positive example to students of sister institutions.”
IIT Bhubaneswar has been revisiting and adopting some of the time tested best practices. Engaging small fraction of students who have been defaulting on deadlines, in community service to make one aware of his/her lapses has been found to be constructive and positive and the model is being adopted at IIT Bhubaneswar for imposing discipline, in place of penalising financially.