South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) on Monday organised a drive to weed out plastic bags in all its four zones and seized around 700 kg of plastic bags in the last nine days.

A senior SDMC official said that the drive was organised under its ongoing ‘Swachhata Hi Sewa’ campaign. “The civic body has now focused on the activities which will help in developing Swachhata an inseparable part of the daily routine of citizens. All four zones under SDMC have been directed to be competitive in maintaining cleanliness in their jurisdiction.

The official further said that during first 9 days around 700 kg of plastic bags has been seized. Approx 400 kg plastic bags seized from the alone South Zone and 170 Kg of bags from the west Zone of the civic body.

With an aim to encourage people to discontinue using plastic bags, the Najafgarh Zone of SDMC on Sunday also distributed bags made from jute and educated residents about the bad effects of plastic bags for the human, animals and environment. 

“The civic body has also made functional sanitary vending machines at 14 toilets situated in various markets. The sanitary napkins will be easily available at subsidised rate of Rs 5 from the machines,” the official said. The toilets are also being provided with incinerator machines for decimation of the used napkins to ensure cleanliness in and around toilets, he said.

Besides, more pink toilets are being developed with an aim to provide a safe public convenience for the women by providing a separate feeding and changing area within it, he said. The pink toilets are presently functional at PVR Vikaspuri, Lajpat Nagar and GK Part 1.

He also informed that the SDMC in its effort to supplement its waste management encouraged the RWAs and residents to make use of its wet waste for preparing compost. For the purpose, around 60 pits which will turns 3o ton waste into compost manure in a period of 30 days in the tight covered pit have been dig to implement it, he said.