Campaign for clean markets in Cuttack

Cuttack: The civic body has started an identification process for major markets in order to declare those as Swachh Bazar if they conformed to certain parameters.

Municipal commissioner Bikash Ranjan Mohapatra said on Saturday that preparatory meetings had already been held to launch the identification process.

"We have targeted at least 60 per cent markets to declare as Swachh Bazars by streamlining waste segregation and disposal," Mohapatra said.

The housing and urban development department has asked the state's municipal corporations for declaration of Swachh Bazars by March 31.

The Cuttack Municipal Corporation will launch a special cleanliness drive with the slogan "Amah Bazar, Swachha Bazar" to educate trading establishments about segregation and collection of waste. "Heaps of waste are seen all over the marketplace. Uncollected, rotting waste creates unhygienic conditions, especially in the rains," said social activist Pravat Ranjan Dash.

Mohapatra said parameters for a Swachh Bazaar tag include using plastic bags above 50 microns and proper disposal of waste. The civic body will constitute committees with representatives from market associations, local NGOs, ward councillors and members of youth clubs for identification of spots and locations for garbage bins. The establishments will also be sensitised on waste segregation using two bins - green for wet and blue for dry waste. Temporary roadside vendors will have to bring with them the two coloured bins.

Councillors will declare Swachh Bazars in their respective areas that satisfy these parameters.

Chairman of the civic body's standing committee for sanitation, Ranjan Kumar Biswal, said: "We will place two big bins to transfer waste from the coloured bins for disposal at each market."

"We will impose fines for anyone who does not follow this process. We will not tolerate dumping waste in drains," Biswal said.

Cuttack is taking part in the Swachh Survekshan III and a central team is expected to assess its sanitation practices shortly to check whether the city meets the prescribed cleanliness parameters.