JOIN USDist Admin to plan for a 'plastic free' Dasara
With days left for Dasara celebrations to commence in the city, various sub-committees under Dasara Executive Committee are gearing up to manage the tourist inflow into the city. Among the sub-committees is the Cleanliness sub-committee, which is considering several measures to make the city appealing and clean.
Speaking to Deccan Herald, executive president of the sub-committee and assistant commissioner of Mysore City Corporation (MCC), Lokanath R said that 280 additional pourakarmikas will be employed to keep the heart of the city, where the celebrations will take place, neat and tidy. “We have already invited tenders in this regard already,” he said.
Dasara and related programmes will take place in three of the nine zones in city -- Zone 1, 6 and 7. There are about 1,300 pourakarmikas employed by MCC in nine zones of the city.
Night shift
Lokanath said that cleaning of ‘core areas’ in the city will be held in three shifts, including a night shift between 12 midnight to 6 am. Night cleaning will be done along with regular cleaning from October 4 to 14, he said.
Plastic free zone
Secretary of the committee and MCC health inspector, Dr D G Nagaraj said that there were proposals to declare the core areas of celebration as plastic free zone. Apart from these, measures are being planned to make use of Dasara to create awareness on segregation of waste.
The sub-committee which employed services of former cricketer Javagal Srinath to endorse zero waste management and waste segregation last year, will decide on the celebrity to endorse similar themes this year, he said.
“We will also conduct informative, educational and communicative activities to stress upon the importance of cleanliness among citizens of the city, ten days prior to city. We will approach some troupes to organise street plays to create awareness about the same,” he said.
As additional measures for cleanliness, it has been mandated for shops operating in the core zone to keep dustbins, especially in outlets at Food Mela. Since, Food Mela will produce a lot of waste, two containers will be kept at the premises to ensure cleanliness at the venue, he said.
Pourakarmika issue
It can be recalled that pourakarmikas under contract employment recently had staged a protest alleging that payment of salaries were due to them for the last three months. Dr Nagaraj said that MCC had cleared all the issues related to pourakarmikas and expected them to actively involve in works during Dasara.