Beaches in Udupi district will be cleaned daily if an instruction by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Udupi Zilla Panchayat H. Prasanna to such Gram Panchayats having beaches has any takers.
The CEO has asked the Gram Panchayats to have a permanent system in place to clean the beaches under their jurisdiction, daily. Any of such panchayats can take up daily beach cleaning and have garbage disposal system on a pilot basis within the next fortnight, the CEO said in the instruction given on Saturday.
Mr. Prasanna said that the district had 80 km long coastline. The zilla panchayat will extend all cooperation to such panchayats which went for daily beach cleaning as a permanent measure.
The CEO said that such gram panchayats can ask the local Sanjeevani self help groups (SHGs) to take up daily beach cleaning and manage the waste generated daily. The garbage should be segregated as wet and dry. Enough bins to store dry and wet waste separately will be made available to such panchayats through the tourism department. Gram panchayats can allow the SHGs doing beach cleaning to start such economic activities which can help them earn money.
He said that tourism department will install hoardings and boards at beaches asking people not to generate and dump waste on the shores and beaches. The Panchayat Development Officers should use the powers vested on them to take action against such persons dumping waste on the beaches. The panchayats should also keep a watch on such persons dumping garbage on beaches.
The CEO said that fisheries department will be asked to create awareness among fishermen not to dump any waste in sea and scientifically dispose off old and damaged fishing nets without throwing them in sea.
He said that if the beaches are kept clean, a conducive atmosphere for sea turtles to lay eggs on the beaches could be created.
Awareness on management of waste should be created among students studying in coastal schools, he said.
