‘Clean Ernakulam’ on anvil

Kochi: The District Administration is launching a ‘Clean Ernakulam’ mission in order to make the streets in the district free of any waste. The PWD Road Wing, National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), Kalamassery Municipality and the Health Department will join this mission in the first phase.

In the first phase the five kilometre stretch from Edappally Toll to Choornikkara bridge will be sanitised and the cleaning will be launched in the second week of July. Later it will be extended to the whole of district with the co-operation of more agencies including the local body concerned.

A mechanism will be introduced to monitor whether the cleaned places are littered with waste again. The waste will be segragated into organic waste, plastic clothes and bags and footwears. The organic waste will be directed to Brahmapuram while plastic will be directed to the shredding unit of Kalamassery municipality. District Collector S Suhas said that the decision on dealing with the remaining waste will be taken after discussions with the officials. The monitoring committee constituted for the purpose will meet in three days.

The District Collector said that the project will be implemented by ensuring the participation of the people. Volunteers and NGO Anpodu Kochi too will be involved in its implementation. The Collector pointed out that mostly the streets are littered with waste generated at institutions and houses and hence people should turn alert not to cause such harm. He also appealed not to mix organic waste with other waste and deposit them after segragating in allowed places only. Various officials including disaster management deputy collector P D Sheeladevi attended the meeting.