The neighbourhood Youth Parliament is a gathering of young and aware Key stakeholders of nine (9) neighbourhoods in the back waters of the river ‘Nethravati’. They care for the cleanliness of the river and the surrounding areas that have been polluted because of various pollutants from the surroundings. It is for this very reason that the people have come together and organised themselves in the name of ‘Save the river campaign of Uliya neighbourhood’ and gathered at Ullal CMC meeting hall on 27th Feb 2020.
The purpose was to deliberate about their various problems and finds ways for its mitigation and to work towards a clean environment. The programme is supported by NYK, DK. The key partners in this endeavour include, Ullal CMC, School of Social work, Roshni Nilaya and Maruthi Yuvaka Mandala, Mogaveera Patna.
The Participants for this workshop were the Youth volunteers of Nehru Yuva Kendra (NYK) Mangalore, Taluk yuvajana Okkuta (Taluk youth Federation ) , Mangalore.Maruti Yuvaka mandali, Mogaveera Patna, Ullal, Faculty and students of School of Social Work - Roshni Nilaya, Mangalore,Convenor, Sundaribagh Swatchatha samithi, Abbakka nagara CMC officials including the Commissioner of Ullal CMC and the local MLA of Ullal On the whole, there were 95 participated in the deliberations.
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The welcome speech was given by Mr Riyaz Mangalore, a fellow resident of Uliya and a core participant in the formation of this youth parliament. Mr Vasudev Rao welcomed the chief guests to the dais, The prayer song was sung by the students of 2nd yr MSW students.
This was followed by lighting of the lamp by the chief guests (Ashwin kotyan, Herald D'Souza, Raziya Ibrahim)
The hand bill (karapathra) on the ‘save the river campaign’ to protect the environment was released by Mr. Rayappa, the commissioner of Ullal CMC. Riyaz Mangalore spoke about the various problems faced by the people residing near the river and how this gathering can be made productive if we can come forward and raise our voice to the issue and suggest various measures to save the river.
Sessions; Mr Rayappa, spoke about various ways in which he has tried hard and made this place a better place in his work in ‘Swatch Bharath Abhiyan’ . He also spoke the greed of people to buy those plastic products and care very less about the segregation of this plastic or dumping of plastic waste in public places. He said that everyone must contribute to the place where they live. He even gave many precautionary measures to everyone present, not to drink tea in plastic cups. He ended his speech on a thanking note to all those who have helped him change Ullal and he specially thanked the students of Roshni Nilaya for their hard work and co operation in helping the CMC in its ventures. Mr Vasudeva Rao acknowledged the other neighbourhood members who had entered the panel of discussion.
Mr Mustaq Patla (Counsellor of patla, Ullal) spoke a few words on how time has changed the use of materials and how people are polluting the place more these days. He says that back in the old day’s people didn't need plastic materials and everything looked green and fresh the river was beautiful and fresh. But after the use of plastic, pollution of the river has caused a lot of problems starting from agriculture to drinking water. He concluded saying that we need more young people to realise this fact and come forward to save the environment.
Mahesh Kumar, Environment department , College of Fisheries, spoke technically about the various ways in which the river can be saved. He suggested that growing mangrove plants near the river side will help clean the water. Sea weeds also help produce algae and this can help clean the water. Uliya is a place where a lot of shell fish is reared and collected.
People collect ‘mussels and clams’ from the river, so by cultivation of this on a larger scale they can pave way for a very good market and employ people as well. Shell meat costs a lot in the current market ( 1500Rs/kg). He said that the sand mining and sand business must stop near the places where there is a huge growth of fish or any marine life.
Open Session; A lot of people had questions to ask on many issues like how do we know that the fishmeal industry is polluting the river and how to stop dumping of thermocol waste into the river. The session ended with Mr Mahesh giving them a neat explanation on how the fishmeal industry is supposed to release their fish water into the sea and not river. He ended by saying that he is happy to see the youth, elderly men and women taking interest in this issue and contributing to saving it from pollution.
Mr UT Khader, the MLA joined the meeting and he was warmly welcomed by everyone. He took over the session and addressed the gathering. He spoke about the place without an underground drainage system would be declared as a slum automatically. We are yet to improve a lot on various measures to be taken to keep the surroundings clean. He appealed , that everyone must think about the environment and live their lives.
Mr.Kishore Attavar, Director, Extension of Roshni Nilaya, spoke about the importance of understanding a Campaign or movement by the people. and why they should join the ‘ save the river campaign a successful one of Ullal. He further spoke on the characteristics of a campaign and its institutionalisation process.
Mr. Riyaz began to get the feedback of the participants of the Neighbourhood Youth Parliament. People expressed their feelings and ideas. An idea to begin a House to house awareness drives in the community covering all the neighbourhood. Pamphlets regarding the pollution and measures to be taken up to keep it clean.
Mr Sundar Uliya, in his Presidential Address thanked the appropriate contribution of each of the Resource Persons to the programme. He appealed to the neighbourhood members to ensure saving the Nethravati river environment to the next generation, as we have benefitted during our child hood days. He felt that the programme has helped all the key stakeholders to share their opinions on mitigating the environment pollution in the true spirit of the Parliment.
Vote of thanks was delivered by Mr Loyd.
