Govt eyes world record on Swachh Bharat this year

NEW DELHI: As the Narendra Modi government reaches the half-way mark of its term, it is eyeing a world record for its flagship programme Swachh Bharat Mission. The government is all set to launch a fourmonth campaign across the country to achieve 100% waste segregation and garbage-free cities.

The urban development ministry would launch the campaign in 900 cities on June 5, World Environment Day. The campaign would culimnate on Gandhi Jayanti on October 2.

Every household would get two bins -coloured green and blue -and would be expected to segregate their waste. By the end of this month, the ministry would rollout multimedia campaigns to educate people about waste segregation.

Swachh Bharat Mission ambassador Shilpa Shetty would help the ministry in this initiative. Civic bodies will educate every household through field visits and tutorials through resident welfare associations on how to segregate garbage.

Apart from household segregation, vehicles carrying garbage to waste treatment plants will also be changed to have two compartments.

Public places will also follow two-bin system.

Speaking to ET, Praveen Prakash, mission director of Swachh Bharat Mission, said: “We have noticed that every city starts with garbage segregation and then gives it up in between. Our experience shows if garbage segregation is monitored carefully for the first 120 days, then the practice does not fizzle out. This is what we are trying to achieve. We will monitor it for f our months.“

In the process the ministry is eyeing a place in the Guinness Book of Records. “If successful, this would be the biggest attempt at garbagefree cities,“ said Prakash.