The Hindu 05.12.2017
Greens ready for zero-waste project
Supporting the district administration’s zero-waste project, 51 local
bodies in the district have formed Haritha Karma Sena, a group of green
technicians, for the collection, segregation and disposal of
non-degradable waste.
According to Suchitwa Mission officials, 48
grama panchayats and 12 block panchayats, which were short-listed for
the project, have formed Haritha Karma Senas and finalised their
proposals for setting up Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs) for the
segregation and disposal of non-degradable waste.
“Though a few
local bodies are facing opposition to the setting up of MRFs because of
the ignorance of the people, most of them are successfully proceeding
with the project,” said C. Kabani, District Coordinator of Suchitwa
Mission. Haritha Karma Senas are ready in all the selected grama
panchayats to begin the work, she said.
The panchayats will make a monthly payment of Rs. 15,000 to each Haritha Karma Sena member.
Service charge
This
will be in addition to the service charge of Rs. 40 collected from each
of the households benefiting from their service. Till now, Kudumbasree
members under the Haritha Sena have been providing the service.
Vadakara
municipal authorities said they selected the members to the Karma Sena
by conducting an interview under the leadership of their standing
committee on health.
Door-to-door collection
According
to the agreements finalised in the municipal limit, the members will be
given a fixed monthly payment and a service charge up to Rs. 50 from
the households.
Door-to-door waste collection service will be
offered twice a week and the collected waste will be brought to the MRFs
for segregation.
The MRFs will be handling all the shredding and
baling and disposing work in a scientific way sticking to the parameters
fixed by the Suchitwa Mission.
All the block panchayats have been
asked to invest at least Rs. 31 lakh to set up MRFs. The cost of mini
MRF units in grama panchayats will be below Rs. 7 lakh.
In Kozhikode district, the total cost for the zero-waste project is estimated at Rs. 70.43 crore.
The amount will be mainly used for setting up MRFs and training the Karma Sena members.
Rs. 70.43-crore project
Haritha Karma Sena will collect and dispose of non-degradable waste
Sena worker will get a monthly payment of Rs. 15,000 from panchayat
Material Recovery Facilities will be set up in all panchayats