A beehive of activity was witnessed at the Visakhapatnam Public Library premises at Dwaraka Nagar on Friday as children of various schools from the city gathered to participate in the Ozone Day contests, organised by The Hindu in association with the Essar Foundation.
Scores of children turned up at the library well before the appointed time at 10 a.m. and were seen making last-minute preparations for the elocution. The overwhelming response made the organisers to split the participants into two groups and accommodate them in a second hall.
Some of the participants came up with ideas on the spur of the moment exhibiting their original thinking. The Judges for the elocution – Prof P. Bobby Vardhan and Prof. DVR Murthy of the Journalism and Mass Communication Department of Andhra University – restricted the time given to each participant to two minutes in view of a large number of participants in the preliminary round.
One girl said an artificial ozone layer cannot be made and therefore protecting it was the only way out and many others promised to plant saplings and take care of them. Most of the participants seemed to be well aware of the depletion of the ozone layer, its harmful effects and the required remedial measures to reverse the same.
In all, 185 students from 18 schools participated in the elocution contest.
Winners: B. Praneetha Raju of Sri Krishna Vidya Mandir, Rachit Bafna (Sanskruthi Global School) and D. Keerthana (Sri Krishna Vidya Mandir) won the first, second and third prizes in Elocution respectively.
The consolation prize winners are: V. Hyndhavi (Sri Ramakrishna School) VSL Shreya (V.T. High School), K. Monika (Sri Ramakrishna School) and S. Dhanusha (Fort Catholic Girls High School).
Superintendent of Police (Visakhapatnam Rural) Rahul Dev Sharma, who participated as chief guest at the valedictory, commended the students for their awareness on the depletion of ozone layer, its impact on human health and the remedial measures. He advised them to plant a tree each, and ensure their survival, to minimise the damage to the environment.
CEO of Essar Steel India S. Venkatesan said a lot of measures were being made to reverse the damage being made to the ozone layer and expressed optimism that in the next 10 years, a lot of problems would be resolved. He recalled that Visakhapatnam was listed among the top cities in environmental pollution 10 years ago but with remedial measures by various industries, the pollution levels had decreased and the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) had relaxed the norms for setting up of new industries.
Senior Environmental Engineer of AP PCB K. Srirama Murthy briefed about the steps being taken by the board to keep pollution under check. He said APPCB was ready to provide information and extend its testing facilities for the benefit of the public.
Earlier, Head-Tech Services of Essar M. Ravindranath welcomed the gathering.
Joint General Manager (HR) of Essar Steel India, Senior Assistant Regional General Manager of The Hindu G. Srinivasa Rao, Assistant Regional Manager Vijaya Rama Raju were on the dais.
