Corporation’s night drive to keep Georgetown clean

Praveen Nair, Regional Deputy Commissioner (North), said littering, especially by traders, has been a difficult task to handle. “Through this drive, we wanted to create awareness among the merchants, because the bulk amount of waste is generated through the day and is being dumped on the road. In addition, we are also creating awareness among shopkeepers, asking them to be responsible for the area around their establishment and keep their surroundings clean. We want to create a civic sense with respect to garbage,” said the official.  On October 22, close to 215 sanitary workers from the Corporation were deployed to clear 72 streets from 11 pm onwards. G Chockalingam, Executive Engineer for Zone 5, who supervised and documented this drive, said, “For this cleanliness drive in Georgetown, 

we used three lorries, six mini trucks and two bobcat loaders were used to clear 58.67 metric tonnes (MT) of garbage. With Deepavali coming up, we wanted to create awareness on keeping our streets clean.” 

Thomas, who runs a tea-stall in the vicinity, said he was pleasantly surprised to see the clean streets. “The Corporation staff did a thorough job and the streets looked much better without the garbage,” he added. Anjala, a flower vendor, said, “I hope these streets are maintained in this manner.” 

Chockalingam pointed out that this was the first step towards reducing the garbage on the streets. “The Corporation will collect the garbage as usual. But in commercial areas like Georgetown, bulk waste and debris is thrown on the road, which leads to a piling up of garbage. Once we cleared it, the trader too agreed to cooperate. Members of the Federation of Madras Merchants and Manufacturers Associations provided refreshments for the staff, who were cleaning up. There was also a dialogue and the traders agreed to ensure that the bulk waste is kept in neat cardboard boxes outside their shops for the Corporation vans to pick up, thus reducing garbage on the streets,” he concluded.