Civic bodies to launch spl drives to sell ‘Mo Khata’

Bhubaneswar: The housing and urban development department has directed all the urban local bodies of the state to launch special drives to dispose of the stock of organic compost, ‘Mo Khata’, by selling it to the consumers.
In a letter to the municipal bodies, Sarada Prasad Panda, joint secretary of the department has asked the commissioners of all municipal corporations and executive officers of all municipalities and NACs to launch the drives in their respective jurisdictions. ‘Mo Khata’ is the organic compost produced by the urban local bodies of the state out of the wet waste like vegetables and flowers collected from households and other settings. The compost is sold under the brand name of ‘Mo Khata’.
The government has decided that ‘Mo Khata’ shall be sold at a discounted price of Rs 10 per kg to all users with immediate effect from the date of issuance of this letter till July 31 to dispose of available stocks as well as popularise the usage of ‘Mo Khata’ among the people, Panda wrote.
He suggested contacting line departments like horticulture, agriculture, soil conservation and forest departments as they require huge quantities of compost during April and July. Therefore, the compost should be kept ready with appropriate packaging and supply requirements, he stated.
The joint secretary has also directed that all bags and packets to be used for packaging of ‘Mo Khata’ should be procured through Mission Shakti Groups only. The swachha sathis to be engaged in the marketing of ‘Mo Khata’while visiting communities for waste collection, he said. The heads of the line department, including the chief district agriculture officers, deputy director horticulture, district forest officers and district soil conservation officers in the meantime have been requested to procure the organic compost ‘Mo Khata’ produced by the municipal bodies.
The municipal bodies have been adopting various measures to sell and also popularise the organic compost. In the state capital, the civic body has an exclusive outlet while it has also started home delivery of the same .