THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state capital was cleaned up within hours after the Attukal Pongala festival, attended by lakhs of devotees, on Thursday. As many as 3,204 sanitation workers swung into action with the mammoth task to clean up the streets of the state capital.
While 30 wards were declared part of a festival zone, devotees offered pongala even in the ex-panchayat wards under the City Corporation. According to corporation officials, devotees were spread across 60 wards, making the cleaning process tough.
As many as 350 small and big trucks were used for removing waste and at 8.30 pm around 330 tonnes of biowaste had been removed. Besides, around 85 loads of bricks were also collected.
As the daytime temperature was high, the cleaning activities were kicked off at around 3 pm and continued till late night. The civic body, along with the Suchitwa Mission and district administration, launched a comprehensive awareness campaign to ensure a green pongala.
A door-to-door campaign was also held spearheaded by Haritha Karma Sena members weeks ahead of the pongala to reduce the generation of waste and encourage people to use eco-friendly alternatives. As many as 228 voluntary organisations were registered online for distribution of food and drinking water.
A senior official of the health wing said that many unregistered organisations distributed food and drinking water, violating green protocol in many parts of the city. “As per our assessment, the green protocol was 90 per cent effective during pongala and there is drastic reduction in the quantity of waste generated during the festival,” said the official.
As many as 180 green army members took part in the pongala to sensitise the public.