Goalpara: Here’s what Assam’s ‘cleanest village’ does to remain clean: it imposes penalty on its residents if they miss out on the weekly community cleanliness drive.
Interestingly, however, the village has been running this drive for the last 20 years. And over these two decades, not one villager has had to pay the fine. Reason: the villagers are all too happy to make their weekly contribution in order to keep the village ‘the cleanest’ in Assam.
Situated approximately 140 kms from Guwahati, Ransapara first caught national attention in 2016-17, when it was adjudged the ‘Cleanest Village of Assam’ by the state govenment. The village had won a cash prize of Rs 5 lakh.
The idea of cleanliness is, however, not so new to Ransapara. In the year 2000, the villagers formed a managing committee that passed four resolutions – peace & unity, clean & hygienic toilets, clean drinking water and cleaning the village.
The villagers come out together twice every week to carry out a community cleanliness drive. On Wednesdays, the drive is carried out by the men of the village, and on Saturdays, it’s the women who are seen cleaning every nook and corner. It was also decided then that missing out on the community service would lead to a Rs 30 for men and Rs 15 for women.
Speaking to EastMojo, village headman Robert John Momin said that it has been a joint effort of all the villagers who have put their efforts since the year 2000.
“We never intended to be the cleanest village but keeping our courtyards and the village clean was a part of our daily activity. Meanwhile, the youths also worked for beautification of the village. Since then, we have been carrying out cleanliness drives twice a week and if someone fails to be present, they will have to pay a fine. The penalty is Rs 30 for men and Rs 15 for women,” Momin said.
But we never got a chance to penalise anyone because everyone happily takes part in the drives, Momin adds, with a tinge of pride.
Another aspirational feature of this tiny village, with a population of approximately 500 people, is its strict conduct on the consumption of alcohol or any type of intoxicants. Any person found violating the norm is penalised with a fine of Rs 5,001.
Visitors are also thoroughly screened before being allowed to enter the village and are advised to abstain from consuming any intoxicants. In fact, none of the shops in the village sell intoxicants of any kind.
“We inform visitors beforehand about the ban in the consumption of liquor or any kind of intoxicant. Meanwhile, media also played an important role in spreading the role so everyone eventually got to know about it. So people abstain from such practices by themselves rather than we having to inform them,” Momin said during a conversation with EastMojo.
The Ransapara village, with 92 households, is also one of the most popular tourist destinations in Goalpara district. After a long interval, the village reopened its doors to visitors in September.
The enchanting natural environment of Ransapara village is a major tourist attraction. Tourists from across Assam, particularly from Barpeta, Dhubri, Odalguri and Guwahati come here. On weekends, the village receives about 80 to 90 vehicles filled with tourists.
However, the village has been finding it difficult to house the tourists owing to a lack of lodging facilities at present. to house all the tourists in the village. In the coming days, the villagers are hopeful of the possibility of better lodging arrangement for visitors to the village.