As many as 10 panchayats in the district have achieved the target of becoming completely garbage-free under the Malinya Muktha Keralam campaign of the State government.
An official statement on Wednesday identified the local bodies as Kallara, Vellore, Aymanam, Udayanapuram, Vechur, Thiruvarppu, T.V. Puram, Maravanthuruth and Chembu panchayats. These local bodies have also achieved 100% user fee collection by extending the service of Haritha Karma Sena volunteers to all households and institutions.
The criteria for declaring a local body as waste-free include achieving 90 to 100% in organic waste management, 80 to 100% in public sanitation, and 70 to 100% in maintaining the cleanliness of waterbodies through segregation of organic and inorganic waste at source, collection of inorganic waste from households and institutions on user fee basis, and so on. Once a local body declares itself as garbage-free, a district-level committee will verify its performance on these aspects and accord the approval.
According to Binu John, joint director, Local Self-Governments department, solid waste management activities are progressing in 71 panchayats and six municipalities of the district. “As many as 13 panchayats , along with the Ettumanur and Vaikom municipalities, have achieved user fee collection above 75% while in the remaining local bodies, the number of households and businesses cooperating with Haritha Karma Sena volunteers have increased,’’ he said.
Meanwhile, authorities have completed the training for schoolchildren in waste management across three Assembly constituencies. The training for teachers in this regard is progressing in other constituencies.
The activities in this regard are coordinated by the district campaign secretariat.
