'Mattannur municipality won Promising Swachh Shehar award for effective awareness campaign'

Mattannur: The Mattannur municipality has won the central government’s promising Swachh Shehar of Kerala award. The representatives who returned after receiving the award had been given a warm welcome by the councillors and employees at the municipality office.

The group was welcomed to the grand beats of percussion and other festivities at the municipal office premises. Municipal chairman N Shajith, vice chairperson O Preetha, secretary Ragesh Paleriveetil, permanent committee members K Majeed, VK Sugathan, P Sreenath, P Praseena, P Anitha, councillors P Raghavan, PP Jaleel, clean city manager KK Kunjiraman, health inspector KM Prasad, KP Sathyan, Jayaprakash Panthakka and K Ramya spoke at the event.

'The Promising Swachh Shehar of Kerala Award' under the 9th edition of Swachh Survekshan 2024-25, held under the theme 'Reduce, Reuse, Recycle' was presented by Union Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), Manohar Lal, during a ceremony held at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi on July 17.

Will continue the good work: Chairman
Municipal chairman N Shajith said that the municipality that won a national award for its excellent performance in hygiene and waste management will continue to maintain the good work. He added that the municipality was able to win the prestigious award only because of the cooperation and support of everyone.

"The local body was able to effectively implement the awareness programmes aimed at reducing waste and discard used, non-biodegradable objects in the open," Shajith told Onmanorama.

He believed that one of the key factors, which helped score the additional points were inviting school children to the Material Collection Facility (MCF), help them spend the entire day there and make them understand that such places are not dirty. "They even had their food at the centre and they had the direct experience of knowing the importance of reducing garbage and making waste management part of their lives," he said.

Another important programme of the Municipality was introducing the 'Harita Vidayalaya Puraskar,' with ₹10000 as the top prize, ₹7000 as the second prize and ₹5000 as the third prize. "Now in Mattannur Higher Secondary school, which has a strength of around 3500 students, you won't even find even a single chocolate wrapper in the compound," he says.

He also requested their continued support to maintain the incredible work done by the municipality. He stated that the use of disposable materials would be limited. Bus stand would be chosen as a prime location to focus on proper waste disposal. Any event attended by more than 50 participants should be registered at the municipality and should be held by following the green protocol.

Incinerators would be installed to effectively manage the disposal of used sanitary pads. Meanwhile, a liquid waste management plant would be opened in the city soon. N Shajith said that Mattannur will be able to win the top spot in the country in the hygiene survey once the modern butchery becomes a reality. He also noted that the national award has made them eligible to receive more fund from the Swachh Bharat Mission.