Patna: As part of its efforts to promote cleanliness and hygiene in the state capital, the Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) has decided to launch a special campaign, ‘Mission 2 October’, to encourage residents to segregate household waste into non-biodegradable (dry waste) and biodegradable (wet waste).
Under this campaign, a Rs 500 fine will be imposed from October 2 on those who fail to segregate waste before handing it over to door-to-door collection vehicles.Source segregation is expected to enhance the civic body’s waste collection and processing systems, treat garbage as a resource and manage the remaining waste at the Ramachak Bairiya landfill.
Municipal commissioner Animesh Kumar Parashar told TOI that the PMC has made all arrangements for the launch of the campaign next week. “The campaign will be divided into different stages, including orientation, training, action plan, awareness drive through information, education and communication (IEC) programme and penalty. The PMC has partnered with the UNFPA Bihar for a three-day training and orientation of all involved in the campaign,” Parashar said.
He added, “We have formed a two-member team in all 75 wards, consisting of a nodal officer and a sanitary inspector, to prepare the action plan. This includes deciding routes for garbage collection vehicles, the number of trips per day and maintaining records of defaulters, violators and penalties collected.”
In addition to the ward-wise teams, the PMC has established 375 teams for household garbage collection, each comprising a helper, driver, supervisor and mobiliser. “Initially, the teams will educate residents on segregating dry and wet waste. We will also hold meetings with stakeholders, including resident welfare associations (RWA) and market associations. In apartments, we will ask RWAs to arrange separate bins for dry and wet waste and encourage people to separate their garbage,” Parashar said. He added that from October 2 (Gandhi Jayanti) onward, a Rs 500 fine will be imposed on those who do not comply with the new rule.
During waste collection, teams will carry a booklet to record the names of violators and fines will be collected via PoS machines. According to PMC data, there are 3 lakh households in the city. The civic body operates 375 auto-tippers and nearly 300 e-carts for waste collection.

We also published the following articles recently