THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Even while seven guests did not bother to turn up, the cultural gathering organised by the City Corporation to garner support for its much-significant decentralised solid waste management programme did its best to deliver the message to the public. From Mayor K Chandrika to poet Sugathakumari and Swamy Sandeepanandagiri, the ones who turned up sought the help of citizens to eradicate the menace of plastic and to dispose waste at source itself.‘’All kinds of cleanliness is required. Let’s be clean or be prepared to perish,’’ poet Sugathakumari stressed in her speech. ‘’It is the tendency of people to buy unnecessary items, which is the root cause of the increasing menace of plastic. Buy things that you really want. The consumer-driven society is harmful to Nature. We had our ways to carry things around when there were no plastic covers. Use cloth bags and get rid of plastic,’’ she urged. Swamy Sandeepanandagiri said that he has been witnessing many people dumping garbage in water bodies. ‘’Our ashram is near a river, we are witness to how some catering units find it a handy place to dump party waste,’’ he said. The Swamy said that his School of Bhagavad Gita has formulated programmes that stress on the need for cleanliness. ‘’Even if it’s a terrorist group in the name of Bin Laden who proposes a cleanliness drive, I would pledge my support to it,’’ Swamy said. Explaining the new project of the Corporation, Technical Committee Chairman of the Corporation’s solid waste management programme R V G Menon said that the public can choose from either of the three types of waste disposal mechanisms - biowaste, ring-compost and vermicompost. ‘’If the three are not enough, you can always rely on the old method of digging a trench and filling it. If you plan to go for other methods, the Corporation will give subsidies,’’ he said. Menon said that henceforth, Kudumbashree Cleanwell units, who were known as garbage collectors, would be identified as experts in garbage disposal since they would be equipped in helping citizens to adopt either of the three methods. Training for this would be given to the public, Menon said. Mayor K Chandrika explained in detail the centralised mechanism of the Corporation at Vilappilsala, how it began, how it gradually went on to become a menace and why the Corporation was shifting to decentralised methods now. Standing Committee Chairpersons, councillors and Cleanwell unit workers turned up for the function, which was followed by a ‘Janakeeya sangamam’. Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, Opposition Leader V S Achuthanandan, Minister V S Sivakumar, BJP leader O Rajagopal, MLA V Sivankutty and many other political leaders made their presence felt at the ‘sangamam’.
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