Cleanest city: A feast for Mysuru's real waste warriors’ efforts
Mysuru: To keep Ward No. 35 clean, Hanumakka begins her day at 6 am, sweeping the roads and collecting garbage from door to door. Busy at the break of dawn, she hardly has any time for breakfast. Her first meal of the day is at 2 pm when she comes back home and enjoys her brunch.
On Saturday, not just Hanumakka, but 633 other permanent pourakarmikas and 645 workers on contract, who are engaged in collecting 402 tonnes of garbage from two lakh households across the city, were treated for a special lunch by the Mysore City Corporation to honour their efforts in keeping the city clean. The gesture came as Mysuru has been declared the cleanest city in the country under the Swacch Bharat campaign.
The special lunch was organised at Rajendra Kalamandir, with ministers, corporators and officers too joining them in the feast. The menu included rice bath, rice and sambar, different varieties of side dishes, burfi and papad served over plantain leaves. District in-charge minister V. Srinivasprasad, Legislative Council Vice-Chairman Marithibbegowda, Mayor Lingappa, Deputy Commissioner C. Shikha and others sat among the pourakarmikas. “I had never seen an event or a feast like this. I have no words to express my happiness,” said Murugesh, a pourakarmika.
Mysuru City Corporation Commissioner C.G. Betsurmath said that awareness campaigns through jingles on FM radio stations and local TV channels on segregation of waste, door-to-door collection of garbage, scientific disposal and management of solid waste, best sanitation practices, well-managed underground drainage network, nearly no open defecation and clean water supply to all areas helped Mysuru get the clean tag.
“We have proposed a new solid waste management plant with a capacity to treat 200 metric tonnes of waste. Biogas and waste to energy plants have ensured that the city remains clean. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has assured us of all assistance,” he said.
Some pourakarmikas, however, said that the administration should ensure facilities like morning breakfast, education for their children, bathrooms in every ward for them to clean and change, free healthcare, a hall to hold weddings and a canteen on the lines of police canteen for subsidised food items.
