NAGAPATTINAM: Thalaignayiru town panchayat in Nagapattinam district, with a population of less than 15000, has topped Tamil Nadu in being the cleanest local body in Swachh Survekshan for 2022, a survey conducted in cities.
Thalaignayiru also spelt as Thalanayar or Thalainayar, has been ranked the ninth top local body in the list of southern states (south zone). K Kuhan, executive officer of the town panchayat, said, "The credit goes to combined efforts of officials, staff and sanitary workers. We will work to improve in areas such as toilets and centralised compost yards to score even better."
It may be noted that Kuhan received an award the previous year as well when his previous town panchayat, Vaitheeswarankoil, topped Tamil Nadu as the cleanest local body and was also ranked second in southern states in Swachh Survekshan 2021.
Officials, staff and sanitary workers from Thalaignayiru town panchayat celebrated the achievement by exchanging sweets, singing songs and dancing on Monday. Nagapattinam Collector and other officials lauded Thalaignayiru and Kuhan. According to officials, there are 12,798 people in the village in 4,131 households in the town panchayat.
There are 10,140 voters. C Subramanian (60), a farmer said, "It is to be cherished that the town panchayat has become cleaner than ever before since Kuhan became EO. The workers are also working tirelessly to maintain cleanliness. We wish the town panchayat continues to do even better."
There are 38 sanitary workers. Among them, there are six permanent workers, including four men and two women. There are 36 temporary workers, including 10 men and 22 women. There are also 10 other staff, including the executive officer.
K Sureshkumar (47), who works a sanitary worker and driver for 15 years, said, "Most people have mended their ways in their approach towards waste disposal and cleanliness over the past one year. Their change in attitude has made our work easier. Our families are also happy hearing about our achievement."
The town panchayat has scored over 90 per cent in the segregated door-to-door waste collection, cleanliness of roads, cleanliness of market areas, cleanliness of residential areas, cleanliness of drains, cleanliness of waterbodies, daily sweeping in residential areas and non-availability of open garbage dumps. It got over 75 per cent in citizen grievance redressal. It got over 50 per cent in cleanliness of public toilets and city beautification.