(UNI) It is well known that Sikkim is much cleaner than many other places in the nation.
Looking into the ways and means keeping both Urban and Rural areas clean, the State has taken
some interesting steps.
With his 26 years experience as the Chief Minister, Pawan Chamling led to introduce mandatory pre- condition to have toilets at home for anyone filing Panchayat election nomination! Not only this for any kind of Government benefit & granting possession of Toilet is mandatory,one is expected
to produce Certificate to that effect, while accessing any type of goods distributed free of cost ,including LPG Cylinders and Oven,Induction Cookers,Rice Cookers, House Upgradation, Corrugated Iron Sheets for replacing old roofs,particularly in the rural Sikkim.
Urban areas have different issues due to different life style. UNI came across the Mayor of Gangtok
Municipal Corporation. Distributing Dust Bins to Gangtokians, he was quite confident that the
beneficiaries would use brand new Dust Bins disposing of the old ones.
”We have to distribute 30 Thousnd Dust Bins. Some of the persons are yet to come and collect the Bins, the rest have taken. The Dust Bins of Blue colour are meant for dry and Green for wet.The families using those will have to segregate the waste at source”,said the Mayor GMC Shakti Singh Chowdhari.’
Far ahead of any State, Sikkim was conferred with Rashtriya Nirmal Gram Puruskar in 2008, But who
generates the public opinion, seeks public participation and much required awareness ?
Chief Minister Pawan Chamling has been taking personal interest leading the State to cleanliness and GMC Mayor is committed to realize the vision in the Capital.
The urban people not having big space for cultivation, depend on kitchen gardens.
Linking it to Swacch Bharat-Swachh Sikkim, he has motivated the public to use kitchen waste in the kitchen garden and terrace garden. 650 Smart Bins have been given out for converting the Kitchen waste into Organic Manure.What about rest of the garbage? ”We have a big landfill at Martam.The cleanliness and Greenery are the two components for non polluted Gangtok,” added Mayor.
Cleaning outdoors is done by ‘Gangtok Beautifiers’ they take pride in being named so, instead of being called Safai Karamcharis or Sweepers is done across rest of the country.
Mayor claims that street sweeping, is done twice a day, they walk with wheel barrows on the main market road to empty the big bins kept there for public strolling. Collection of Garbage is done in heavy vehicles by stopping at various points in the morning for households along the roadside to get their bins emptied.These vehicles are driven to Martam Landfill site, where the equipment is operated daily to dry up the whole filth.These vehicles have been funded by Asian Development Bank.
