Swacchameva Jayathe campaign in 1,000 GPs

To create awareness on solid waste management and scientific disposal of garbage, the state government will organise Swacchameva Jayathe campaign in 1,000 seleted Gram Panchayats across Karnataka.

Accordingly, the campaign will be launched in all the 230 Gram Panchayats in Dakshina Kannada district on June 11.

Commissioner of Rural Drinking water and Sanitation department, in a circular issued to all the Zilla Panchayat CEOs, declared that as part of the drive awareness should be created on the use of toilets, solid waste disposal and sanitation among the general public.

Awareness should also be created among schoolchildren on the utilisation of toilets. In addition, wall writing should be taken up in each village in the gram panchayat limits to create awareness on sanitation and cleanliness.

Awareness should also be created on segregation of dry and wet waste, recycling of dry waste, conversion of wet waste into manure, beautification of villages, cleanliness in villages and environment conservation. The state government in its 2019-20 budget had announced Swacchameva Jayathe campaign in 1,000 gram panchayats.

In villages, the dumping of solid waste like plastic, glass and bottles was increasing with each passing day. This was causing a negative impact on the health of the rural poor and environment.

As a part of Information, Education and Communication (IEC) activities, street play, essay competition, Shramadan and Jatha will also be taken up during in the month of June.

On the direction of National Green Tribunal, it has also been decided to take up work on solid waste management unit in minimum three gram panchayats in the district and transform them into model gram panchayats. By October 2019, the work on these unit should be completed. On the lines of three model gram panchayats, all remaining gram panchayats should have solid waste management units within a year, the circular stated.

All gram panchayats need to plant 30 lakh saplings during the launch of the drive on June 11.

Measures will be taken to plant at least 500 saplings in each gram panchayat limits. The saplings will be planted in school premises and the students will be entrusted with the responsibility to taking care of the saplings.

Along with awareness on sanitation and cleanliness, emphasis will also be laid on hand washing campaign and administering pledge on sanitation as well.

Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat Chief Executive Officer R Selvamani directed all the taluk panchayat EOs (Executive Officers) to initiate measures for the effective implementation of the
programme and create awareness on scientific disposal of solid waste among the community.