Andhra Pradesh CM launches massive clean drive; flags off garbage vehicles

Vijayawada: Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy formally launched Jagananna Swachha Sankalpam - Clean Andhra Pradesh (CLAP) programme, aimed at providing better sanitation services to rural and urban areas here at Benz Circle on Saturday.

As part of the programme, the Chief Minister flagged off 4,097 garbage collection vehicles and inspected dust bins and vehicles used for garbage collection.

On the occasion of the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi and former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, the Chief Minister paid floral tributes to their portraits and then released a CD of Jagananna Swachha Sankalpam – CLAP. The Chief Minister appealed to the people to follow Gandhi’s ideals for clean Andhra Pradesh and to cooperate with the government for making the state in ‘Clean Andhra’ through CLAP programme. Reddy inspected the CLAP bins and tricycle and other equipment and interacted with the staff.

Speaking on the occasion, minister for municipal administration and urban development Botsa Satyanarayana clarified that CLAP was not a Centre’s programme, it was purely by the state government. He explained that in urban areas, 3,097 hydraulic garbage autos and 1,771 e-autos had been arranged for waste collection and disposal and 38,000 sanitary workers would also be involved in CLAP. He said the state government would distribute 3 colour-coded dustbins (red, green and blue) for all 40 lakh households, where people could use them for waste disposal after segregating the waste. He said the programme would be initiated on a big scale and sought public participation to make it a success. He said the Chief Minister was specially focused on making Andhra Pradesh a clean state.

Minister for panchayat raj and rural development Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy said the main intention of the initiative was to make clean surroundings across the state with public participation. He mentioned that in the past, Swachh Varotsavalu were held and similarly this time, with active participation of people, a 100-day programme was initiated to bring awareness on maintaining clean villages and clean cities with proper waste disposal.

Mentioning that as many as 10,645 waste management sheds had been repaired and put in use while another 4,171 are being constructed under the NREGS, Ramachandra Reddy said almost 27,000 green ambassadors and 10,000 gram panchayat workers would take part in the programme and over 14,000 tricycles would be used for collecting waste. He further said apart from these, 10,731 high pressure toilet cleaners, 10,628 portable thermal fogging machines and 6,417 incinerators had been arranged. He urged people to be part of this initiative and to keep their surroundings clean just like their houses.

Endowment minister Vellampally Srinivas, municipal and urban development special chief secretary Y. Srilakshmi, MPs, MLAs and other public representatives were present on the occasion.