SRINAGAR: The Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) of Kashmir division has launched Sanitation-cum-Awareness campaign in all the 40 ULBs as a part of the Jan Abhiyan Initiative under ‘Back to Village’ phase four, a programme launched by the Government of Jammu and Kashmir.
Dheeraj Gupta, Principal Secretary, Housing and Urban Development Department, directed this campaign intending to clean nearby rural areas and water bodies with public participation. Mathoora Masoom, Director, Urban Local Bodies, Government of Kashmir, spoke about creating awareness among the general public on the 3R Principle of Waste Management, segregation of waste at source, and ban on single-use plastic.
Activities related to cleanliness and awareness of sanitation practices were undertaken including plog runs, installations of boards with ‘swachhata’ messages, awareness of source segregation through ‘HaraGeela – SookhaNeela’ concept of waste segregation, dissemination of Swachhata messages through announcements by door-to-door collection vehicles, among others.
About 31 tonnes of garbage has been collected so far. The campaign saw participation from the elected public representatives of the ULBs, non-governmental organisations, community-based organisations, informal workers, students, etc. The campaign started before the commencement of phase 4 of the ‘Back to Village’ initiative and will continue till the culmination of the programme.