Awareness drive held in ten lakh houses

Hyderabad: Swayam Sahayaka women activists and Swachh Dhootas have conducted awareness programmes in ten lakh houses in Greater Hyderabad limits on Swachh programmes till date. For the first time in the country as many as 44 lakh dust bins to every house to segregate the wet and dry garbage have been distributed . 

Since the residents did not show much interest in using them Rs.28 crore spend on dust bins has virtually been wasted. 

Consequently, GHMC Commissioner Dr Janardhan Reddy issued orders appointing  2,200 active women as Swachh Dhootas (as against the target of 3,600), allotting each 600 houses for collecting the wet and dry garbage from each house and handing it over to autos. 

These women have interacted with women residents of ten lakh houses, maids and conducted awareness programmes on segregation of garbage. During the programmes, they impressed upon the residents not to dump garbage in the open areas and to download the Swachh Dhoot App. The work of these women is being verified by Swachh auto drivers.

According to Janardhan Reddy, thanks to the efforts of these women, the number of green and blue dust bins distributed to collect garbage has significantly increased. He describes the exercise taken up by these women as a novel experiment in the country. ‘This is a new experiment in the management of garbage’. 

Reddy says the women are being paid remuneration depending upon their work. The GHMC chief states that the garbage collected in ten lakh houses has been segregated and vermin compost is being prepared bv using the garbage.

In the past 3,500 metric tones of garbage was collected after distributing two dustbins to each house.  Thanks to the use of Swachh autos  the garbage collected  has increased to 4,500 MT which has reached Jawaharnagar dump yard. 

The GHMC figures show that an additional 200 MT of garbage could be collected by the Swachh Dhootas approaching houses as part of the awareness programme that the residents should segregate the garbage and hand it over to the Swachh Autos.

The GHMC has plans to deploy the swachh dhootas to other cities in the country for conducting awareness programmes on segregatiomn of garbage, according to Janardhan Reddy. He says so far  the app has been downloaded by 6,500 persons through the Swachh Dhootas.