The inhabitants of this city of Andhra Pradesh receive “return gifts” stinking of garbage to litter the roads.
Hyderabad:
The municipal commissioner of a coastal town in Andhra Pradesh has declared war on indiscriminate rubbish dumping in a unique way. He sends “return gifts” of household waste to residents who do not give them to the garbage collectors assigned by the civic body.
In the town of Kakinada, in the district of East Godavari, nearly 55 km east of Hyderabad, municipal commissioner Swapnil Dinakar Pundkar asks his staff to pick up irresponsibly thrown garbage and “deliver it to homes ”to those who do not hesitate to throw them in the roads and sewers – one of the main factors leading to urban flooding.
Mr Pundkar adopted this harsh method to try and change the habits of residents days after the civic body launched an awareness campaign on responsible waste management as part of the Clean India mission, but found that people continued to use their old ways.
“We have carried out awareness campaigns (on the right way to dispose of garbage to make the city clean), but some people refuse to follow the rules. Anyone who is found throwing trash on the road, the trash will be picked up and sent home. With this “return gift” we want to tell them that it is a bad practice, “City Commissioner Swapnil Dinakar Pundkar told GalacticGaming.
Therefore #Kakinada the municipal commissioner supervises#ReturnGift‘of #garbage to all households that do not hand in the garbage to the municipal worker who collects it door-to-door and dumps it irresponsibly on the road or in the sewers @GalacticGaming@ndtvindia@kakinada_KMC#SwachchBharatpic.twitter.com/H6AfiPqOCY
– Uma Sudhir (@umasudhir) November 7, 2020
Videos of City Commissioner Swapnil Pundkar’s interactions with misguided residents have been widely circulated on the internet, where he has won praise for his unique approach to the problem.
Footage shows Mr. Pundkar touring the city with city workers, who point to houses where there are reports that they refuse to “cooperate”. He is seen warning residents not to throw garbage on the road, then supervising his staff to carry a garbage bag home and empty it at the entrance.
“Next time there will be a fine. You complain about clogged drains; how do you expect the water to flow if you throw garbage in it?”
There are 1.2 lakh homes and 80,000 homes in the city of Kakinada, where 90% of the homes have received barcodes that are scanned every time a civic worker picks up trash. The city has nearly 1,200 municipal employees, 900 of whom are involved in household garbage collection.
“We want to eliminate the littering on the roads as it attracts stray animals. We ask people to separate wet and dry waste if possible. We recycle wet waste into vermi-compost and dry waste is recycled and resold “, said the commissioner. said, adding that he wanted to make Kakinada a clean and green city as soon as possible.
