Ranchi: The Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC) is geared up for a cleanliness
drive to collect the garbage generated during the nine-day Navratri festival. Two days into the festival,
RMC on Sunday said it is coming with up an integrated plan — a collaboration with
puja committees and its workforce — to take up the challenge and conduct regular sanitization of areas with higher footfall to keep the Covid-19 virus at bay.
Talking to TOI, deputy municipal commissioner Shankar Yadav said, “It used to be a routine affair for us every year but this time, the puja celebrations are different. We cannot just ensure proper collection of garbage as we are fighting a virus, too. To make the city clean and free from infection, we have worked out the detailed plan.”
As part of the plan, the civic body is focussing on keeping the roads clean by increasing the daily trips of the garbage collection and mechanical sweeping vehicles. Small pick-up vehicles and tractors will also increase their frequency of garbage collection and all city managers have been assigned six wards each for personal supervision daily.
On steps taken up to check infection at puja pandals, Yadav said, “We have already conducted the first round of sanitization at every puja pandal and have them to get sprayer machines so that they can conduct sanitization daily with the help of volunteers. We will provide 10% concentrated sodium hypochlorite for the purpose.”
He added, “I have reviewed the city’s mini garbage transfer stations and will visit areas with high waste outputs. For the last three days, I have been touring the city areas during the night to prioritize the areas where we have to increase the trips of our garbage collection vehicles.”
The civic body officials appealed to the public to support their efforts and not to litter their neighbourhood. “Please keep your garbage in dustbins and the ‘Safai Mitras’ will pick them up from your homes or from areas where the dustbins are,” Yadav appealed.