Swapnil Dinakar Pundkar, the municipal commissioner of Kakinada city, has come up with a unique way of teaching the residents who irresponsibly dump garbage on the streets or on the road, a lesson. 

Wondering, what that might be? He basically sends ‘return gifts’ of domestic waste to residents who throw the garbage on the road instead of handing it over to civic body-assigned garbage collectors.

Swapnil gets his staff members to collect garbage that has been disposed off irresponsibly. He then gets them to ‘home deliver’ it to people who need to be taught a lesson or two about properly discarding waste as it is one of the biggest factors that contribute to urban flooding. 

The municipal commissioner had to resort to this method to try and change the residents’ habits and to create an awareness about responsible waste management under the Clean India Mission. In an interview with NDTV, Swapnil said:

We have been doing awareness drives (on the correct way to dispose garbage to make the city clean), but some people refuse to follow the rules. Whoever is found littering on the road, the garbage will be collected and sent back to their house as a deterrent after due verification. With this “return gift”, we want to tell them that this is a wrong practice.

In fact sometimes, he also goes door-to-door to conduct inspections in homes where residents reportedly refuse to ‘cooperate.’

People on social media have been praising Swapnil for his unique approach to teach a good habit. 

His only wish is to be able to turn Kakinada into a clean and green city. 

So, lets start acting responsibly to save our environment and to keep it clean. Shall we?