Email sent out to members of the Calcutta CleanUp Campaign!

1. Continuous CleanUp drives on all weekends without fail so far.
2. Targeting of various parts of the city and not just the ‘posh’ areas which are always in the news. From Burrabazar to Rashbehari Avenue and quite a range in between.
3. Attention and support of the media, the police and the US Consulate.
4. Raising awareness among all contributing members, growing by the day. Volunteering by over 300 different people through the campaigns.
5. CCC Page on Facebook gets close to 1700 fans from all walks of life.
6. Great moral support from people all over the world. Even those who’ve never lived in Calcutta.
7. School children have been used and that makes for a great lesson in bringing them up as active citizens.

Weaknesses that we need to address:

1. Ladders have always been a problem. First procuring them and then not getting the right size or some being too heavy or too light. It’ll do us good if we had aluminium ladders with wheels in every locality.
2. Good quality brooms and their transportation to every drive.
3. Leaving behind of holes in trees once the nails are removed. A specialist here may help.
4. Absence of garbage vats or their far-removed location which makes it difficult to transport.
5. Political Hoardings cannot be touched as thats too ‘sensitive’ an issue.
6. Religious makeshift temples usually created at the base of trees cannot be touched as they keep building into bigger and bigger versions.
7. Spending money on procurement of tools and refreshments for volunteers from the individual pockets of campaign leaders.
8. Re-appearance of the clutter, that we painstakingly remove, within a while.

The way ahead:

1. The campaigns must continue at least on one week end day. In different localities and by different campaign leaders.
2. Corporate Sponsorships for the brooms, ladders, t-shirts, gloves, pliers, poster-scrapers and refreshments for volunteers.
3. Dust-bins program. Make a citizen adopt a dustbin, pay him on a monthly basis to maintain it. Cultivate a habit of throwing litter only in the bins.
4. Get KMC on board, especially the Solid Waste Management Department and the Advertisement department.
5. Get KP on board with the Green Police Force assisting us along the way.
6. Form a CleanUp Force with one leader in each locality. Give them badges and an active citizenship booklet to guide them along the way.
7. Tackle large companies that litter and advertise illegally and expose them through the media.

CCC in the media:

1. http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090720/jsp/calcutta/story_11258552.html
2. http://www.travelbizmonitor.com/calcuttawalkscom-launches-calcutta-cleanup-campaign-in-the-city-6926
3. http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090622/jsp/calcutta/story_11142598.jsp
4. http://www.indianexpress.com/news/broom-in-hand-us-official-cleans-up-kolkata/479415/
5. http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090708/jsp/calcutta/story_11207154.jsp

…and more.