Hyderabad: Wife donates cart in husband's memory

Hyderabad: Jayanti Menon did not put up a useless statue to the memory of her socially conscious husband who passed away in 2014. Instead, she has donated in his memory something that would be of great use to the community — an eco-friendly rickshaw worth Rs 1 lakh that can transport 400 kg of waste and works on batteries.

The battery-operated rickshaw does not emit any gases and once charged, runs for 100 kilometres.

It’s the first of its kind in the city and will be used by GHMC to collect household waste from residential areas in Habsiguda where Ms Menon lives.

A retired scientist from IDL Chemicals, Ms Menon explains the reasons for her initiative: “Our home in Habsiguda was bought in 1984. Back then, it was under the gram panchayat and we were among the first ones to build there. My husband, Lohi Menon, played an instrumental role in raising civic issues before the gram panchayat. He persuaded the panchayat administration to lay colony roads, street lights and even provide water connections. Though he worked as an internal auditor (in the accounts department of the same company, IDL Chemicals), he used to spend his spare hours doing social service and colony development.”

She said that even before the government’s Swachh Bharat initiative, her husband promoted clean and green initiatives.

“He and his friends developed the Habsiguda colony park. There is an old saying that a person’s popularity is known by the number of people attending his or her funeral. Hundreds gathered for Mr Menon’s funeral in 2014, not just friends and family but many from his social circles, even the municipal corporations, Red Cross and more. So, on his second anniversary, we decided to donate an eco-friendly vehicle to the GHMC.” The three-tyre rickshaw was made operational on Tuesday.

Vijay Krishna, Deputy Municipal Commisioner - Uppal Circle, GHMC, said a team of civic officers had recently visited Mysore city, after it was ranked number one in the Swachh Bharat Survey.

“I found the Mysore Corporation’s sanitation wing operating eco-friendly vehicles. The same has been implemented in Habsiguda now, funded by Ms Jayanti Menon. The vehicle will be used to collect and transport waste from the colony.”

The rickshaw has the name of Mr Lohi Menon as the donor. The GHMC has 2,000 Swachh autorickshaws and has distributed Rs 44 lakh dust bins to households for segregation purpose.

The GHMC has removed around 1,116 open garbage collection points in the city.