It was an overwhelming show of strength where nearly 600 volunteers gathered for a cause—to clean the Mettupalayam bus stand and the General Hospital that had been crying for attention.

The lack of awareness among the people in the Municipality had left lots to be desired in terms of hygiene and sanitation, more specifically at the bus stand and GH where several thousand frequent on a daily basis.
With the aim of making Mettupalayam a better place to live in, hundreds of like-minded individuals came together and formed Namma Mettupalayam group last month.

The members include people from all walks of life; including college professors, professionals, entrepreneurs, private hospital doctors, lawyers, teachers, students among others. The group has over 500 people as members and a few of them are active members.

Members of the group meet every Sunday and during their meetings they discuss ways and means to make Mettupalayam a better place to live in. On agenda and priority is to clean the public areas of Mettupalayam.
On Sunday nearly 600 members of this group and several volunteers got together and they cleared the bushes and weeds behind the paediatric ward of the Mettupalayam General Hospital.

We were told that the area remained un-cleaned for several years. When the members of Namma Mettupalaym along with volunteers cleaned the area it took about 15 mini truck loads to dispose the garbage.
The dustbins were breeding families of rats and bandicoots, the broken glass pane of the mortuary is being replaced and so are the broken window panes of the paediatric ward which forced children to sleep in the cold.
The pathetic plight of the hospital can be attributed to the absence of sanitary staff in the General Hospital. “Keeping these patients in mind we had organized this drive to clean the premises.” D. Satheesh Kumar Mettupalayam Municipal Chairman said.

The volunteers including over 100 Home Guards personnel of Coimbatore District cleaned the bus stand and hospital. Scrubbed the spit-stained floor clean, removed liquor bottles from the dense bushes in the hospital backyard and cleared filth all through the day.

Namma Mettupalayam has many such projects on the pipeline. The Namma Mettupalayam Logo designed by the Creative Director of Maruthi Printers, R Thangavelu was released in the presence of Mettupalayam Magistrate Suresh Kumar. The theme song has been created by Samuel and team.