Lok Sabha elections 2019: Use of biodegradable material make cleaning of polling booths easier

Polling booth premises are littered with voting slips, pamphlets and other voting materials
Voting paraphernalia at a polling booth
Voting paraphernalia at a polling booth

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With the Lok Sabha elections going green, the garbage disposal from polling booths is no longer a tiring task anymore. Adhering to the circular from the chief electoral officer, the election officials in the district tried to avoid non-degradable materials in the polling booths. The official information boards, signboards were either biodegradable or recyclable. Plastic bottles and food wrappers were avoided in the booths. However, the voting slips, pamphlets and other polling materials remained scattered in most of the polling booths in the city.

The local self-government bodies, Haritha Keralam, Suchitwa Mission were responsible for the cleaning with the help of NGOs. "The tubelights removed for the VVPAT machines were replaced today, but none from the local self-government body came to clean the polling booths," said Jaseela A R, principal of Government Higher Secondary School for Girls, Cotton Hill.

The situation remained the same at Raja Kesavadas NSS Higher Secondary School, Sasthamangalam. "No officials contacted or informed us regarding the cleaning process. We have asked our school helpers to clean the classrooms that were used as polling booths," said Usha Devi, headmistress of RKD NSS HSS. According to a district corporation official, the green protocol has reduced waste in the polling booths. Plastic-coated plates and glasses formed a major percentage of the garbage in the previous years. This year the same was replaced by steel plates and glasses provided by Kudumbashree.

"Haritha Keralam, Suchitwa Mission along with the schools will take initiatives to clear the venue soon," said one of the corporation officials.   Nevertheless, the office of district collector claimed to have informed the local self-government bodies regarding the cleaning process.

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