The Madurai Corporation has proposed to remove garbage lying in water channels for years together on a daily basis by deploying its conservancy team and machines in a big way across the four zones.
Between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. daily, the teams would clear the water channels. The campaign, with the theme, Ezhilmigu Madurai, will be undertaken in one ward a day in each of the four zones.
On day one, the civic authorities had chosen S Alangulam (Ward 4 in zone 1), Tirupalai (Ward 24, zone 2), Nelpettai (ward 50 zone 3) and Melavasal (ward 81, zone 4) for the mass cleaning activity.
By deploying a little over 1,000 conservancy workers and providing them with tipper lorries, tractors, JCBs, mini-robot and fogging machines, the water channels will be cleared of sludge, garbage and debris. The objective is to ensure that every nook and corner of Madurai is clean in all aspects, officials said.
Residents’ duty
Inaugurating the activity at Melavasal near Periyar bus stand, Finance Minister P. T. R. Palanivel Thiaga Rajan said that the residents should be educated to keep the environment clean. The habit of dumping garbage on roads should be stopped forthwith. The residents should have the responsibility to use dumper bins.
There had not been such cleaning activity over the last 10 years in the city, which posed health hazards to those who lived in unhygienic environments. The initiative of the civic authorities to clean up the channels was welcome. But, the people also to be responsible and ensure that the channels and underground drainage system were free from encroachments, the Minister said.
Collector Aneesh Shekhar said that the mass cleaning also helps in preventing diseases like dengue. The drainage channels should not be used as a dump. Corporation Commissioner K. P. Karthikeyan said that senior officers in the Corporation had been entrusted with the task of supervising the mass cleaning activity and the public can share about specific locations which require such cleaning.
The waste lifted from such mass cleaning would be transported to Vellakal at night and segregated for safe disposal, officials said.
Eco-activists said that the civic authorities may explore the possibility of engaging the residents welfare association office-bearers in the wards concerned to assist in the campaign as volunteers.