Chhattisgarh: Raipur organises nation's first 'Kachra Mahotsav'

The Raipur Municipal Corporation in Chhattisgarh has organised the city’s first garbage festival that ended on Sunday. However, a tweet by the municipal corporation says that it is also the nation's first such festival.

A press release added that the aim is to increase awareness, aim to increase awareness, use the waste generated in the city creatively and to showcase multiple techniques for reusing things that are labelled as garbage.

The three-day festival will be filled with workshops, talks, performances and also some interesting installations.

Inaugurated and started with a bang!
India’s first ever Garbage Festival - Kachra Mahotsav 2018
Visit & learn tons of cool ways in which you can make your garbage useful!#MorRaipur #SwachhRaipur #KachraMahotsav #SwachhBharat #SwachhSurvekshan2018 #PositiveIndia pic.twitter.com/ZPdXTdU8gL

— Raipur District, Chhattisgarh (@RaipurDist) January 19, 2018

As part of their unique celebrations, other districts in Chhattisgarh have also shared innovative ideas including poems by students on the importance of cleanliness and hygiene.

Children can become ambassadors of cleanliness - @Manekagandhibjp
Jashpur has introduced #Swachhta nursery rhymes for toddlers in its district schools. Issues of cleanliness, sanitation have been weaved into poems and tables.#MyCleanIndia #SwachhSurvekshan2018 pic.twitter.com/2nAfSXqvJy

— Jashpur District, Chhattisgarh (@JashpurDist) January 19, 2018

Earlier, the Centre had said that every household will get a toilet and will be open-defecation free before the 2019 elections, but have cautioned that changing the general mindset of the people still remains a challenge. 

Hardeep Singh Puri, has had a tough task to manage the huge quantum of daily garbage generated across urban areas. In fact, experts have said availability of toilets and their maintenance are key to their use, particularly public toilets in urban areas. In rural areas, on the other hand, the bigger challenge is to make the facility available to people.  

He added that rural India had achieved only 39% sanitation coverage till October 2014 when the Swachh Bharat Mission was launched. "Over 5.9 crore toilets have been built and nearly 30 crore rural Indians have stopped defecating in the open since the launch of the mission. 290 districts in seven states of Sikkim, Kerala, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Gujarat and Arunachal Pradesh have become open defecation free. We are expecting another 8-10 states to become ODF by March, taking the total to about 18-20. We expect 400 districts to be ODF by March," the official said.