category Regional, chandigarh, , tags Regional, chandigarh, , DW BUREAU Chandigarh In a unique initiative, the Municipal Corporation Chandigarh organized a zero waste Swachh Kanjak programme on the auspicious occasion of Ashtami during Navratri under the banner of Swachhotsav, honouring the little champions of Swacchta. During the programme at Community Centre, Sundar Nagar, Mauli Jagran, Mayor Anup Gupta, area councilor Bimla Devi and other councilors of MCC performed the rituals of Kanjak (Kanya Pooja), where 108 girls were welcomed by washing their feet followed by offering them chunri and serving them food. The traditional prashad of Halwa, Poori, Chana was prepared by women run Self Help Group. More than 600 Kanyas (girls) were served food. The event was a completely Zero Waste event. The food was served on paper plates procured from women run SHG dovetailing the two National Missions of Government of India i.e. Swachh Bharat Mission and DAY-NULM. While addressing the gathering, the Mayor saluted the contribution of women in leading Swachh Bharat Abhiyan movement. He said that the mission had also benefitted women in unforeseen ways. He said that the country was seeing a greater participation of women in the workforce after the success of the Mission. He cited the example of the Pink MRF in Sector 25, where all the waste is being handled by women workforce very efficiently. He emphasized the need of segregation of waste at household level and use of biodegradable items and stopping littering in public places. The Mayor also addressed the suggested them to adopt the habit of home composting by using their own kitchen waste. The Mayor said that the event was organised under the 3 week long campaign of Swachhotsav 2023 launched by Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) on 7th March 2023, the eve of International Women s Day. The event was aimed at creating awareness regarding the contribution of women in sanitation and to strengthen and scale up participation and leadership of women in Swachhata. To spearhead the mission of making Municipal Corporation Chandigarh (MCC) no.1 in the Nation in terms waste minimization at source, reuse and recycle of waste, 100 scientific processing of waste generated. MCC organized a viable, replicable and scalable zero waste event of mass Kanjak. In the event no single use plastic product, plastic bottles was used, floral decoration, paper plates were used. Sufficient safai karamcharis were deployed along with one waste collection vehicles at the venue while water sprinkler was deployed to curb dust pollution. Adequate number of twin litterbins inside the venue were also placed. During the programme Mayor and councilors also distributed them school bags with recycled stationary items besides giving them Swachhta Ke Puzzles and name stickers depicting the four type of segregation of waste i.e. dry waste in blue bin, wet waste in green bin, hazardous waste in black bin and sanitary waste in red bin. Before addressing the gathering, the Mayor also visited an exhibition highlighting the colourful and attractive displays of products made from waste including arrangements of herbal colours made from flower waste, cloth bags, Arpan agarbati made from flower waste and other items were displayed by Self Help Groups. It was a zero waste programme where all the display and arrangements of food were served on biodegradable material. During the programme a Nukkar Natak on Swachhata was also staged by the group of unique arts society in which they emphasized the need of segregation of waste at source level and do not litter on public places besides stop the usage of single use plastic products. (editor dailyworld.in)