St Aloysius ranked 3rd cleanest campus in India

The 138 year old St Aloysius College has been ranked third in the list of India’s best maintained campuses under the Swacch campus scheme of the Government of India.

The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) awarded certificates in New Delhi on Monday, College principal Fr Praveen Martis told reporters at the Patrika Bhavan on Wednesday.

The rankings were based on the college's performance under the stringent parameters of the MHRD. The parameters included cleanliness maintained in the campus, green initiatives, environmental protection measures, student-toilet ratio and maintenance, canteen, hostels, clean drinking water, green audit, energy conservation, waste management system and recycling of waste.

“A four-member team from the UGC had paid us a surprise visit to check the initiatives. The college's mini forest, spread over half an acre, reflected the biodiversity of the region. Each tree on the campus has been identified under different species and named to create awareness among the student community,” the principal explained.

“Vermicompost technology is being used to convert waste into manure on the campus. The college got solar energy plant installed in 2015, as an alternative source of energy,” he added.

Unnat Bharat scheme

Registrar A M Narahari said the college had been selected by the MHRD under the Unnat Bharat scheme. “The MHRD launched the scheme with an aim to connect higher education institutions with local communities to address the issue of development challenges through appropriate technology,” he explained.

Accordingly, five village – Someshwar, Kandavara, Muloor, Pilatabettu and Kavalapadur near Mangaluru city – have been adopted by the college. The scheme will be implemented through the Centre for Social Concern of the college.

Shwetha Rasquinha, coordinator of Unnat Bharat scheme, said the potential of the student community will be tapped by motivating them to take up development work in the villages.

‘One-rupee campaign’

“Such outreach activities will be funded from the ‘One-rupee campaign’ launched by the college, where students, staff, parents, alumni and friends of the college will donate Re 1 every day for an entire academic year. The students have already undertaken awareness programmes on environment conservation and mother and child health care in the village,” she informed.

The college intends to create awareness on ill-effects of drug abuse to the target audience comprising youth in the villages, said Shwetha.

“We will also focus on higher education,” she said and added that, under the school development programme, they had tied up with Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat to install incinerators in government high schools in these villages for scientific disposal of sanitary napkins.

“The college will also conduct soft skill training programmes for villagers,” Shwetha said.

DH News Service