KOZHIKODE: There used to be around 700 of them — those who clean the city at the break of dawn. It has been around 15 years since they set out on this mission. This Gandhi Jayanti day, they were finally recognised.
The 350-odd waste management workers under the Kozhikode Municipal Corporation’s Kudumbasree CDS were honoured through ‘Harithadaram’ as part of ‘Clean Carnival’, an initiative of Green Care Mission, on Monday.
“The services of these Kudumbasree workers are beyond compare,” said District Panchayat President Babu Parasseri, opening the Clean Carnival. However, he expressed helplessness on the question of absorbing them into government service as permanent employees.
The workers attended a rally, ‘Suchitwa Kavalalukalkkoppam Sahasancharam’ (walking with the caretakers of cleanliness), from Mananchira Square to Kozhikode beach accompanied by ‘Haritha Sancharam’ of Team Malabar Riders on bicycles. At the beach, they were honoured by Mayor Thottathil Raveendran.
Wagon flagged off
‘Thelima Wagon’, an initiative of Suchitwa Mission to familiarise the public with various modes of source-level waste management, was flagged off on the occasion.
The wagon is a small truck that carries models and information on waste management equipment such as pipe compost, ring compost, bucket compost, vermi-compost, biodigester pots, IRTC’s portable biogas plant, the vermian food kitchen waste decomposter, and organic manure maker.
Products of Green Care Mission’s ‘Green Shoppy’ such as herbal mosquito repellent, incense sticks, inoculum solution and decomposing mixture are also available in the Wagon that travels to all block panchayats in the district over the next 30 days. A musical eve, ‘Street Melodies’, by street singers and an exhibition of photographs titled ‘God’s Own Country’ by Ajeeb Komachi were also part of the carnival. The Clean Carnival was organised in association with the Kozhikode District Panchayat and Suchitwa Mission in support of the State government’s ‘Haritha Keralam’ project.
