Kendrapara: Even as the Kendrapara municipality has been celebrating its 150th anniversary, the local administration has taken several initiatives to make the township free of plastic and polythene.
In the latest development, the civic authorities have introduced a battery-operated vehicle to collect garbage from doorsteps. This would keep roads and lanes clean and garbage free.
The District Collector has provided opportunity to women SHGs to collect garbage from doorsteps with the help of the battery operated vehicle.
The authorities Wednesday lunched the Swachha Kendrapara and Sustha Kendrapara (Hygienic Kendrapara and healthy Kendrapara) campaign for segregation of municipal waste.
Waste containers have been provided to each and every household to keep their household garbage. Later, they would deliver the garbage in the collection vehicle. Garbage collection has been started in ward nos 1 and 2. The battery operated vehicle has been hired at Rs 3000 per month.
Two members of Renubala SHG group of ward no-12 were engaged for collecting garbage from doorsteps in ward nos-1 and 2. A women from the minority community, Saida Bibi, was engaged for driving the battery operated vehicle along with Smrutirekha Das, another member of the SHG group, said Executive Officer Debabrata Bal.
The SHG members would blow whistle to notify people to deposit their garbage in the vehicle.
Earlier, hygiene and sanitation measures had taken a backseat in the district headquarters township, exposing residents to health hazards.