New Delhi: Tiruchirappalli (Trichy on the banks of river Kaveri, among the most traveled tourist destinations that is famous for its temples in Tamil Nadu is making an all-out effort to push for waste management. According to a new scheme launched by the Trichy Municipal Corporation, citizens who have a green and sustainable home wherein they practice a zero-waste lifestyle will be rewarded with a health insurance cover of up to Rs 1 lakh and people who are practising in-house composting will get gift vouchers. This is to motivate more and more people to practice a green lifestyle in order to make Tiruchirappalli a 100 per cent swachh city.
Talking to NDTV about this initiative, N Ravichandran, Trichy Municipal Corporation Commissioner said,
We wanted to trigger people of Trichy to lead a green and healthy lifestyle, so, the municipal corporation decided to motivate people by giving them rewards.
‘Zero Waste Home’ Scheme – How It Works
Residents adopting the practice of composting in-house can bag gift rewards
The Trichy Corporation has proposed a plan for a Zero-Waste house – one in which people are practising home composting for organic waste and reducing city’s waste load, or are setting up a roof garden and improving greenery of the area, they could also install a rainwater harvesting system to curb water wastage or use minimal to zero plastic in their life. If a resident adopts these measures, corporation will reward them with gift vouchers worth Rs 1.5 lakh in total to avail discounts ranging from 5 to 15 percent every time they go grocery shopping at supermarkets, at sweet shops, restaurants and shopping malls. If a resident adopts all the measures from composting to rainwater harvesting to zero plastic consumption then the corporation can award a Rs.1 lakh Mediclaim policy.
Also Read: Tamil Nadu Gets Its First Smart Dustbin To Tackle Plastic Waste, 500 More To Follow
Explaining the concept of the scheme, N Ravichandran added,
We will be doing this activity through CSR fund allotted to the Tiruchirappalli City Corporation for one year. The mediclaim insurance will be given to the residents from Indian Bank Health Insurance and will range from Rs.2,000 to Rs.5,000, for which the corporation will give the premium for one full year. Residents can reach out to the corporation if they fulfill the scheme requirements, one of our 100 field officers will go to the wards and inspect the houses. Once approved the process of assigning them health insurance will begin. Whereas gift vouchers will be handed to the citizens at home only after the inspection is successful.
The Purpose Of The ‘Zero Waste Home’ Scheme
This initiative has begun in the last 15 days and through this, the corporation aims to solve the problem of overflowing landfills, water wastage, plastic menace, and deteriorating greenery by bringing in the behavioural change among people.
N Ravichandran says,
These are the basic rules of living a green life and they are not even hard. All one needs is the will to make some basic and small changes in their life. In 15 days, we have already shortlisted about 500 homes and about 15,000 households have already started composting their garbage. The aim is to take this number further to 50,000 by December.
Talking about the effectiveness of this scheme in the city, a spokesperson from Project Green Hands, an initiative that aims to increase green cover in the state of Tamil Nadu by inspiring and enabling people to plant more trees and do green deeds, said,
This is a very innovative scheme, it should work, provided people should continue it. Citizens should just not avail the benefit by doing it once and leave it. If Municipal Corporation can figure out the solution to sustaining the behavioural action among residents then Trichy can definitely succeed in going swachh.
With the hope to get 9 lakh residents of the city to adopt the eco-friendly measures, the Municipal Corporation has started this incentive system. The corporation, side by side is also making people aware of the scheme and making sure this initiative proves to be a huge success. N Ravichandran signs off by saying,
The corporation will do what it takes to make Tamil Nadu a 100 per cent green state. We are already known for a few of our eco-friendly initiatives such as being a city with a solar-powered airport and we have also been ranked the most livable city in Tamil Nadu. Through this initiative, we aim to achieve new heights.
NDTV – Dettol Banega Swachh India campaign lends support to the Government of India’s Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM). Helmed by Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan, the campaign aims to spread awareness about hygiene and sanitation, the importance of building toilets and making India open defecation free (ODF) by October 2019, a target set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, when he launched Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in 2014. Over the years, the campaign has widened its scope to cover issues like air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and menstrual hygiene. The campaign has also focused extensively on marine pollution, clean Ganga Project and rejuvenation of Yamuna, two of India’s major river bodies.
