80 ‘garbage-free’ spots campaign yields impressive results, says MCC

The Mysuru City Corporation’s (MCC) ambitious cleanliness campaign to transform 80 garbage-vulnerable points (GVPs) across the city into garbage-free spots (GFSs) as part of the 80th Independence Day celebrations has yielded impressive results, with nearly 1,000 metric tonnes of solid waste cleared in 222 hours of work involving around 4,000 people.

The campaign, held from July 28 to August 31, covered 80 garbage-vulnerable spots across the city. The initiative aimed not only to clear accumulated waste, but also to transform the spots and strengthen Mysuru’s position in the Swachh rankings.

MCC Commissioner M.K. Savita, who led the campaign with the support of officials and staff, said the initiative had helped create awareness about the importance of keeping the surroundings clean and sustaining sanitation efforts.

“We launched this initiative with the idea that all of us should work together to clean the city. Instead of leaving the task only to civic workers, we officials too can step in and clean the garbage. We did that, and the message went out to society, resulting in residents joining and supporting the initiative. This also encouraged and motivated our civic workers,” she said.

An important aspect of the campaign was the transformation of the garbage-vulnerable spots after they were cleared. Images of the transformed locations were circulated on social media to build momentum and encourage wider public participation.

Residents in several wards where the campaign was undertaken also joined hands with the MCC, giving the initiative a strong community-driven character, according to the MCC.

Felicitation

At a programme held at the MCC on Tuesday, the success of the campaign was celebrated. Officials, environmental engineers, health inspectors, supervisors, pourakarmikas and drivers who performed exceptionally well during the campaign were felicitated.

In the officials’ category, the Gokulam crematorium GVP under Zone-4 won the first prize. The GVPs at C.V. Road in Zone-7 and Sathagalli Ring Road in Zone-9 jointly secured the second prize. The GVPs at Chamaraja Double Road in Zone-6 and Cauvery Apartments–Shantadevi Nagar in Zone-3 received the third prize.

The rolling trophy was presented to the team that worked on the C.V. Road GVP in Zone-7.

The MCC also felicitated Anita (Ward 55), Satya (Ward 55), Naveen (Ward 28), Anjayya (Ward 17), Narasimha (Ward 25) and Vijay (Ward 40) for their outstanding work as pourakarmikas.

The MCC said the initiative would not end with the transformation of the 80 identified GVPs. A phased programme would be taken up to transform all garbage-vulnerable points across the city, with the objective of making Mysuru a “GVP-free city” and eventually the cleanest city in the country.

The MCC appealed to citizens not to dump waste on roads, vacant sites or other public places. It urged residents to segregate wet and dry waste at source and hand it over to the civic body’s waste collection vehicles.