Meet This MLA, Who picks up garbage, cleans drains

And when the 44-year-old legislator of Puducherry Munnetra Congress is not pushing for schemes, meeting voters or discussing local politics over a cuppa, he’s clearing garbage, cleaning clogged drains and spraying mosquito repellent across the town.

And he does this with his own money, spending Rs 75,000 to Rs 85,000 every month from his earnings.

Anand’s dual role began nine years ago when, disappointed with the government’s slack conservancy work, he started a garbage collection unit of his own.

Since then, he has been going to the ‘field’ himself, assisting a small team in spraying mosquito repellent, clearing blocks in drains and undertaking door-to-door collection of garbage from all households in his constituency.

When his nine-year-old unit launched an intensive cleaning campaign last week, the MLA was spotted going around in a spotless white shirt and pants with a mosquito repellent kit on his back, covering the thoroughfares of Puducherry.

And he doesn’t do it for publicity: for long, he was neither given a party post nor a ticket while he was in Congress.

But Anand plodded on with garbage-clearing, not letting the mess in the Congress stop him from cleaning the city.

“The government is not effectively undertaking garbage clearance work,” he says, as he expertly sprays repellent on an open sewage drain. Anand’s unit, which started with a single tricycle and two men in 1999, has 14 members today, equipped with four tricycles and gadgets “to carry out our mission”.

So much so that residents refuse to hand over garbage to the government conservancy staff and wait for Anand’s unit every morning. The members visit all households daily, barring Sundays, from 6am to 12 noon, and from 4pm to 6pm and collect segregated garbage.