The Serampore municipality, under the Nirmal Bangla scheme, has started working on cleaner and greener towns. The Serampore civic body chairman, Giridhari Shaw, said, “To keep the town garbage-free, awareness programmes are being carried on. We are telling people about their responsibilities towards their locality and the municipal ward.
Throwing garbage on the roadside is strictly prohibited, all the household waste must be kept in the two plastic containers provided by the municipality, one for biodegradable waste and another for nonbiodegradable waste. Every morning, the sanitation workers are ready at the doorstep to collect the waste. Soon after the residents get used to the new system, there will be no need for the roadside garbage bins.” To make the entire system much faster and efficient, the municipality presently has put to use 23 mobile garbage collecting vehicles, which will be kept stationed at every ward. The sanitation workers, after collecting the household waste, will drop it in the garbage collecting vehicles.
The vehicle container too is divided into two separate compartments. The biodegradable waste is sent for compost formation for agricultural purposes and also to biogas plants. The non-biodegradable waste is sent for recycling purposes. The municipality is encouraging residents to make their surroundings greener, making use of whatever space is available in and around their residential areas.
The Serampore Municipality recently implemented the central government scheme AMRUT. Launched on 1 October 2021 from the financial year 2021-22 to the financial year 2025-26 to provide universal coverage of water supply through functional taps to all households in all the statutory towns, the scheme stresses more on rejuvenation of water bodies, water conservation and rainwater harvesting.