Puri: The district administration of Puri has launched a mega Swachhata Abhiyan with the help of local public participation to make the pilgrim city clean through active waste-collection mechanism.
According to sources, the local authorities have roped in Self Help Group (SHG) members as Swachh Sathis for initiating doorstep awareness on the cleanliness drive. After proper training, each Swachh Sathi has been appointed on honorary basis for every 500 to 600 households.
This apart, as many as 20 garbage trucks have been deployed for collection of wastes on a day-to-day basis in all wards of the municipality. In order to make the initiative extensive, the municipal authorities have engaged as many as 84 Swacch Sathis for the purpose, sources said.
Explaining about the initiative, Bijay Kumar Das, Executive Officer of Puri Municipality said, “A total of 45 such vehicles will roam the streets daily to collect waste materials, out of which 20 have already been mobilised. Each vehicle has been assigned special routes to streamline the process.”
Under the new cleanliness campaign, SHG members are creating awareness among people to dump wastes after segregating them as per their degradable quality. People have been asked to put bio-degradable and liquid wastes in green dustbins and non-bio degradable wastes in blue coloured bins for recycling purposes.
“Earlier people used to throw garbage at any place they liked which created an unhealthy scene in the pilgrim city. The unhygienic condition also triggered various vector borne diseases on several occasions. But now we are encouraging people to cooperate in making this cleanliness drive successful,” said a SHG member.
Local residents are hopeful that such a move to ensure cleanliness across all the alleys and streets of the city will not reduce pollution but also enhance the aesthetic quality of the ancient town.