The Hindu FIC and Arcelor Mittal Nippon Steel (AMNS) jointly held an online elocution competition and poster design contest for schoolchildren in Visakhapatnam on the occasion of International Ozone Day, here on Thursday.
Over 96 students from 40 schools participated in the poster design contest while 86 students took part in the elocution competition.
In the senior category for elocution, the top honours were bagged by Tanushree from Little Angels School, MVP Colony, Ch. Aditya Srinivas from Siva Sivani, Marripalem and Sai Praneeth from Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. In the poster design category, the first three prizes were bagged by P. Gowri Sudhakar of De Paul School, Ukkunagaram, Nandita Pradhan of Siva Sivani, Marripalem, and P. Hasini from Kendriya Vidyalaya, NAD.
In the junior category elocution, the first three prizes were bagged by Avanish Yashuday from De Paul, Kankshitha and Manaswi, both from Sri Satya Sai School, MVP Colony.
In the poster design competition, the top prizes were won by Anchal Patra of Little Angels, G. Sradha Lakshmi of Sri Satya Sai School and Ch. Bhavagnya of Sri Prakash Vidyaniketan, Seethammadhara.
M. Ravindranath, Executive Director of AMNS, spoke about the importance of the ozone layer and how its depletion can affect civilisation and flora and fauna on earth. He urged the young minds to contribute their bit in improving the environment by planting trees, which would help in improving the health of the ozone layer.
Head HR and Administration of AMNS D.S. Varma said that the company has always been striving to improve the environment and reduce pollution by planting trees. “Our plant is set up on 110 acres of land of which 47 acres caters to green cover,” he said.
The topic for the elocution competition was: ‘Ozone for Life: 36 years of Ozone Layer Protection.’ The topic for the poster design competition was ‘Earth 2040’.
Prizes and certificates were given away by Mr. Ravindranath and Mr. Varma. Later, an exhibition of the prize-winning posters was displayed at the Visakha Public Library, where the programme was held.
