Hailing from a small village, Santosh Maskar, chairman of Roseland Society, owns an IT company in Aundh and has brought together expertise from the field and rural lifestyle to create a sustainable living within the society. HT spoke to him against the backdrop of Roseland society winning the National Swachh Bharat Award.
How does it feel winning the National Swachh Bharat Award?
It’s great that our work in the society has been acknowledged. It was not easy and these are efforts from all our society members over the last five years. There is lot of awareness among the society members and they know what segregation is and work towards it without any problem.
How difficult was it to convince 1,000 families to follow ecofriendly practices?
We practice what we preach and we believe that cleanliness begins from home. So, we first tried to tackle the wet garbage at source and used it for composting and then went door-to-door to explain and create awareness about it.
Would you plan to replicate your model in Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad?
We as an individual cannot do this activity on a large scale alone, so we have started involving civic authorities as well as local corporators. We have seen a lot of enthusiasm from the officers in Pimpri Chicnchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) and we have been giving demonstrations to residents. The civic authorities are helping us and encouraging us to share our knowledge with other societies. People need some initiatives from the corporation too, hence we explain the benefits of ecofriendly ways to reduce and gain discounts from the civic body too.
{{/usCountry}}We as an individual cannot do this activity on a large scale alone, so we have started involving civic authorities as well as local corporators. We have seen a lot of enthusiasm from the officers in Pimpri Chicnchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) and we have been giving demonstrations to residents. The civic authorities are helping us and encouraging us to share our knowledge with other societies. People need some initiatives from the corporation too, hence we explain the benefits of ecofriendly ways to reduce and gain discounts from the civic body too.
{{/usCountry}}What triggered you to begin this model in your society?
I come from a village and when I shifted to a city, I missed the green cover. Also, when one looks at your home, you want your surroundings to be good and green. There needs to be an open space and it should make you happy. I think I like planting trees and making sure the area is clean. I guess this was part of my long term sustainability idea. Every person thinks first of his family, then the building and then comes the society. Thus, we look for people who are keen on volunteering and share the same ideas. Once things fall in place, people find that ideas do actually work and that’s what has happened here. We always look for creating a pilot project and always look for cost effective ways. You have to balance between solutions and cost for we are answerable to all the residents.