NCCL gets global recognition

Ahmedabad-based National Council for Civil Liberties (NCCL) was awarded the Dubai International Award for Best Practices (DIABP) for its initiative entitled Mission ENDURE, which was launched in the city in association with Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) to reduce dust pollution.

Recently, Obaid Salem Al Shamsi, Assistant Director General of DIABP, in a letter to V K Saxena, President of NCCL, informed that a best practice certificate for an "outstanding initiative" entitled Mission ENDURE was awarded on behalf of Director General of Dubai Municipality and Executive Director United Nations Human Settlement Programme (UN-HABITAT).

In July 2004, NCCL had launched a pollution-reduction project called Mission ENDURE (ENsuring DUst REduction) in association with AMC.

Under the mission, bare road shoulders are paved with pre-caste cement concrete blocks, by digging 6 inches soil from the road level, watering, laying of a 2-inch bed of sand, and fixing of blocks in an interlocking manner.

Since no cement is used in fixing the blocks, rainwater can seep through the blocks and recharge the subterranean waterbeds. NCCL in less than 2 years paved approximately 88,000 sq. metre. area in the city.

According to NCCL, the independent international technical advisory committee of DIABP had received 650 submissions in 2006 from around the globe, of which NCCL was singled out for the award.