Over 4,000 persons including school and college students and volunteers joined hands with the official machinery in cleaning the coastal town on Saturday.
Even as the Corporation’s population is steadily increasing with new residential colonies coming up in peripheral areas and with migrant population settling down in search of employment, quantum of degradable and non-degradable waste getting generated in the urban civic body is also proportionately swelling.
Consequently, the urban local body’s responsibility of managing it through a proven solid waste management programme also gets manifold.
On his part, Collector N. Venkatesh has designed a Thoothukudi-centric cleaning programme christened ‘Thooimai Thoothukudi’ in which volunteers and students would be involved in keeping the town clean along with the Corporation’s workforce.
Inaugurating the event at Chinnamani Nagar here on Saturday in the presence of P. Mahendran, Superintendent of Police, Mr. Venkatesh said 700 students of Anna University’s Tirunelveli Regional Office, 950 National Service Scheme volunteers of colleges affiliated to Manonmaniam Sundaranar University 1,200 school students and another 1,200 volunteers from police, Indian Coast Guard, Self-Help Groups, Nehru Yuva Kendra etc. joined hand with the Collector and the Corporation for the garbage collection exercise that was launched simultaneously at 63 spots in the town.
“Besides cleaning the garbage, the volunteers have created awareness today among the residents on the need for keeping their surrounding clean and tidy to avoid outbreak of diseases. Since this exercise will be organised on a particular day of every month, I appeal to the general public to join hands with us in this noble cause.
Housewives who sincerely take part in this mission will be selected through lot and honoured with attractive prizes by the Corporation,” Mr. Venkatesh said. Three best sanitary workers were awarded cash prize of ₹1,000 each and residents M. Selvi and Shanmugaraj, who had kept their surroundings clean were selected through lot to receive each 1 gram gold coin on the occasion.
Corporation Commissioner Alby John Varghese and others participated in the garbage cleaning programme.
