Shillong, October 12 2008: To maintain the pristine state of the beauty of Meghalaya, the Meghalaya Urban Affairs Department and the Shillong Municipal Board have taken up a step ahead by putting up hoardings at the peak point of the city.

To help keep the status of Meghalaya as the hygienic and gleaming State, the Shillong Municipal Board and the State Urban Affairs department have taken up measures to improve the habituated spitting and urinating at the corners of streets creating an unhygienic environment, by putting up hoardings at several points urging people not to spit and urinate in public places.

Shillong has been always known for its cleanliness, catching the attention of tourists from within and outside India.

The beautiful landscape, right temperature and clean air surround the environment of the lovely place Shillong city, the capital of Meghalaya.

To cite an instance, Laurence P Belcher, a tourist from Australia, while on a trip to India visited Meghalaya sometimes back and appreciated the civic sense of the people and also stated that there's no chance to stumble on the occasional pile of litter that are scattered on the streets like in many other parts of the country.

He even marked Meghalaya as the 'Small Oasis in India'.

Capping more feathers to the good image of the state is Mawlynlong, a beautiful village of Meghalaya which is also known as the most clean village in Asia comprised of around 81 families and is located near the Bangladesh border.

The Mawlynlong village has set an example for many neighboring villages and surroundings with their enchanting and cleaned environment.

The village also attracts many tourists and people who come to visit the village have a heap of experience in cleanliness.

However, capturing at the present condition of the state, it is seen that there has been an increasing habit of the people of the state degrading the beauty of the nature and spoiling the norms of what a good citizen of the state should possess.

The hoardings put up by the state government to help preserve the condition of the Shillong city being smeared everywhere with the so called people's most desired 'paan' or 'kwai' carries the word DON'T, with a picture showing a mouth spitting out the remaining of the 'kwai' or 'paan' of the indigenous people of the state.

The hoardings also insist the people to keep their city clean by saying 'keep Shillong clean'.

The city buses plying on the streets have also held a standard line 'do not spit or rub lime,' written inside the bus, where the buses were not even spared of the unwanted designs of spit and lime mark highlighted inside the buses.

An official in the Urban Affairs department also said, 'Walls, stairways, buildings, street corners and market places smeared with reddish spittoon and lime-marks are not only an eyesore but also unhygienic'.

In the meantime, the Meghalaya Tourism department had also organized a cleaning drive competition on October 2 in Shillong.

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