KOCHI: For the Ernakulam district, the assembly elections 2026 will not just be focused on electing MLAs. It will also serve as a platform to advance sustainability and green protocols. The district will implement two green initiatives related to the poll.
Under the first initiative, a drive will be conducted to collect old clothes to make mobile pouches for the polling booths in the district.
The second initiative involves making souvenirs from waste paper and plastic materials collected from poll official training centres across the district. The Suchitwa Mission, Clean Kerala Company Limited, and the district administration have joined hands for the initiative.
According to a Suchitwa Mission official, this is a pet project of district collector G Priyanka. “As per the Election Commission rules, mobile phones have been banned in polling booths. So it was decided to provide a facility for those voters who bring their phones to the polling booths to keep them safe. The collector came up with the idea to make mobile pouches that can be hung on the walls outside the polling booths,” said the official.
The drive has been launched and will end on March 26. “Collection centres have been set up at St Teresa’s College, St Albert’s College, Ground Floor of the Civil Station and IMA House. The collection centres will be open from 10.30 am to 5 pm. The citizens are requested to bring only clothes made of cotton or banyan material,” said the official.
Explaining the mobile pouch initiative, the official said that the clothes collected will be handed over to the Kudumbashree units.
“The pouches, around 9 to 12 on each cloth panel, will be stitched by the Kudumbashree units and then handed over to the district administration for distribution at the polling booths. There are 3,148 polling booths in the district. The aim is to make and distribute around 3,200 such mobile pouch wall hangers,” said the official, who reassured that officials will be appointed to ensure that the mobiles are safe while deposited in the pouches.
Another initiative launched alongside the mobile pouch project is the one that would see the conversion of waste paper and plastic from the polling officer training centres into souvenirs.
“Clean Kerala Company has been entrusted with the project. Souvenirs will be made separately from the waste paper and plastic materials to be gifted to the top polling officials, and others after the voting process is completed,” added the official.