The Jai Ram Thakur government will set up about 100 “Swachhta Cafes” with an estimated cost of around Rs 10 crore in Himachal Pradesh by the year 2023 to promote local cuisines and also to collect single use plastic for recycling.

Informing about this, State Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Minister Virender Kanwar said the government aims to set up Swachhta Cafés at important locations of the state with a target to collect 25 tonnes of single use plastic items.

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The single use plastic will be collected from across the state by the end of this financial year to make Himachal Pradesh clean, green and plastic free, he added.

Kanwar said the state government was laying special emphasis on cleanliness, women empowerment and promotion of regional cuisines in the hilly state.

In this regard, the government had launched a mega public outreach programme namely Swachta Café under which plastic wastes will be purchased from the ragpickers, individuals, collecting waste in rural and urban areas at Rs 75 per kg in exchange for food or other eatable items in order to motivate all to keep surroundings clean, he said.

“The Swachhta cafe will be constructed under ‘Village Haat Scheme’ where women will also be facilitated to sell medicinal plants, such as giloye, peppermint, neem leaves powder and homemade pickles, murabba, wheat flour, pulses, spices and vegetables.

These products will be sold at reasonable prices to create additional income resources to the rural women of the area besides providing these items at reasonable rates to the local residents,” he said.

He further stated that the scheme had been launched to provide effective means of livelihood to the rural poor women of the region.

“The women running the Swachhta Cafe will be given training in the hospitality sector to enable them to cook popular traditional delicious cuisine to maintain original flavour and taste of the dishes in order to make this scheme popular and attractive among common masses.

Around 100 such women will be trained by the hospitality experts during the current financial year.

A target has been fixed to train around five thousand women belonging to self-help groups in next three years in the hospitality sector to run these cafes on professional lines to make them economically viable and to generate interest of local clientele to make the scheme successful,” he added.

Kanwar said the first Swachhta Café was inaugurated at Gram Panchayat Radiali in Nalagarh area in Solan which was to be run by women self-help groups and another cafe would be opened at Naggar in Kullu districts.

Under the scheme, if a person brings more plastic waste then he can use the surplus money for dining next time in the cafe.

The programme aims that villages are made completely free of single-use plastic in coming years and the entire state will be covered under the scheme in a phased manner in coming years, he added.