By OUR STAFF REPORTER
DEHRADUN, 3 May: Schools are closed due to the COVID-19 lockdown. Society of Pollution and Environment Conservation Scientists (SPECS) designed a series of online competitions for youngsters to get them involved and become aware of this pendamic. An online drawing competition on the theme COVID-19 was initiated by SPECS from 12 to 20 April. The information regarding this competition was disseminated via Facebook, e-mail and WhatsApp. SPECS received an overwhelming response from children around the country. There were as many as 1047 entries from the 18 states and one union territory.
There were 24 entries from Uttarakhand, 17 from Punjab, 7 from Gujarat, 9 from Jammu, 49 from New Delhi, 39 from Haryana, 37 from Uttar Pradesh, 30 from Maharashtra, 4 from Telangana, 4 from Tamil Nadu, 2 from Sikkim, 1 from Odisha, 6 from Madhya Pradesh, 2 from Himachal Pradesh, 4 from West Bengal, 1 from Bihar and 6 from Andhra Predesh, while 347 participants did not write the name of their state. The children made paintings based on the corona virus.
Online certificates are being sent to the winners, as also participation certificates. The five star winners of the online drawing competition are: Reenesh Sarkar from Ghaziabad(UP), Suryansh Nikhre from Jabalpur, Niharika Sanwal from Haldwani (Uttarakhand), Bhumika Kandwal from Kotdwar (Haldwani) and Nazneen Shaikh from Ahmedabad (Gujarat).
The competition was free for the students. IRADA (Haryana), Shramayog and Lok Sanchar Evam Vikas Samiti were the other coordinators of this campaign. Chandra Arya, Ajay Kumar, Sunil Kainthola, Mona Bali, Shankar Dutt, Vikram, Sushil Pant, Yogesh Bhatt, Rajpal Panchal and Dr Brij Mohan Sharma provided whole hearted support to the campaign.
