The city's newest conservancy operations manager in three zones, Ramky Enviro Engineers Limited, has decided to commence the work in one zone, Teynampet, from January. The process to select at least 3,500 to 4,000 conservancy workers has started. While about 1,700 workers are meant for sweeping, about 2,000 will be involved in the collection and transfer of garbage in the three zones.

"We initiated a three-day selection drive on December 18 to recruit conservancy workers in the city. There has been a good response for the interviews. Interested and qualified workers of the previous conservancy agency too are welcomed," Ram Mohan Rao, national head of Ramky Enviro (Municipal Solid Waste Management) told TOI over telephone from Hyderabad.

Read more...

ExNoRa is providing support as a facilitator in streamlining the Solid Waste Management and Liquid waste management activities for Vailankanni Town Panchayat, one of the most important pilgrim and tourist centres attracting thousands of persons from all over India every month and lakhs during the annual festival in Aug-Sept.

During the past one year Exnora International has arranged training programs for the ward councilors and sanitary staff on solid waste management starting from source segregation to composting.

Two teams from Vailankanni Town Panchayat including the newly joined Executive Officer Ms.Margaret Susila have been taken on exposure-study visit to Kulithalai, which is a model town for solid waste management.

As a result of these activities Vailankanni Town Panchayat has selected three wards for door to door segregated waste collection. To motivate the community, the Town Panchayat gave one bucket for each family to put non bio degradable waste.

Exnora organized a meeting for the local NGOs in Vailankanni and informed them of Exnora’s role as a facilitator in helping the Panchayat in SWM and LWM and in the preparation of a City Sanitation Plan as per the National Urban Sanitation Policy.

The new E.O. has arranged for the supply of one bucket to the householders in wards 8,10 & 11 and she is assisted by People Development Association (PDA) of Nagapattinam in the implementation of the program which is now in full swing.

Before the launching of the collection from houses, the town Panchayat organized a mass cleaning in the three wards to serve as a motivation to the community so that they will desist from dumping the garbage on the roadside.

The process of SWM was launched in Vailankanni in August last during the annual festival in close co-operation with the District Administration. Consequently Mr.C.Munianathan I.A.S, District Collector passed orders to the public not to dump plastic or other waste during the Annual Kandoori festival in the nearby Nagoor Durgah early in May.

ExNoRa conducted a study of Non Utilization of Sanitary Infrastructure in Vailankanni and submitted a report to the town Panchayat. Critical clusters in Vailankanni Town Panchayat were identified through this study.

Subsequently to ensure the involvement of the community in these clusters, ExNoRa is conducting the Social preparation activities with the participation of the community and the local body.

Sanitation mapping exercise was conducted in ward No:6, Muslim Street.

The community members were asked to draw a map of their area on the ground and indicate drainage overflow, garbage dumping place, open defecation area, water sources, etc on it.

Later the community was taken around the ward area and checked and compared ground reality.

The participants were really upset over the real situation as they themselves had indicated.

The participants formed operation and maintenance committee/civic ExNoRa to rectify the issues and for sustained monitoring.

MARG Lights out is a Campaign To Arrest Global Warming. Earth savers are celebrities who support the noble cause with a message and pledge taken by them. Personalities who endorse the campaign to Arrest Global Warming are listed in the below space

        M B Nirmal                         Lakshmi Narayan              Silambarasan                      Robert Swan

 C.H .Venkatachalam              GRK Reddy         Kiruthiga Udhayanidhi          Manicka Tagore

Read More...

No book is unusable here

Wondering if your old, torn note books, text books or paper you scribbled on could be put to some good use? Well, recycling is the answer one can even try at home and quite a number of schools have introduced it as a practical component.

Apart from donating books to underprivileged children as part of just-concluded Aviva The Great Wall of Education, presented by The Hindu, each of the unusable books will be sent for recycling.

For instance, a similar drive initiated by Aviva in New Delhi last year, generated over 1.20 lakh books, of which 35,000 – 40,000 were sent for recycling. The recycled paper was converted into drawing books for underprivileged children.

Read More...

Introduction to ExNora

The Right to Information Act 2005 is a legal tool that will help check corruption and hold the various departments, agencies and officials of the Government accountable. The Act prevents arbitrary action by any government servant. The RTI Act proposes a mission statement of sorts by stating that it is essentially a practical roadmap detailing the ways by which citizens of India can gain access to information that can promote good governance.

Indeed, the Act states that the 'paramountcy' of the democratic ideal must be preserved by reconciling and harmonizing the information economy of India.

What is an RTI application ?

Step 1:Identifying the issue.

Step 2: Identifying the relevant department of the Government. The law mandates a 'Public Information Officer' to transfer the application to the relevant department. In case the applicant refers the application to the wrong department, in no case can the application be returned to the applicant.

Step 3:On a plain sheet of paper addressed to the Public Information Officer of the relevant department write down your questions. This can be in a simple letter format with the subject: Application under Right to Information Act 2005/Section 6 (there is no prescribed application form under the law for filing an RTI application.

Step 4: Payment of fees -- the application fees for the State of Tamil Nadu and the Central Government is Rs.10. The following modes of payment are acceptable in Tamil Nadu:

1. Cash --
   The applicant goes to the relevant department in person and pays fees in cash. Please insist on a receipt/acknowledgement.
2. Court Fee Stamps --
   The applicant affixes court fees stamps (as per amended rules, GO MS 72, dated March 20, 2007).
3. Government Treasury --
   The applicant goes to the Treasury and pays under the RTI account head. The receipt should be attached to the application and sent by Registered Post Acknowledgement Due.
4. Demand Draft --
   The applicant sends a Demand Draft addressed to the Public Information Officer, Name of the Department. The law also gives Public Authorities the liberty to club existing account heads to receive RTI fees. It would be advisable to confirm with the PIO of the relevant department about this. The DD should be attracted to the application and sent by Registered Post Acknowledgement Due.
5. State Bank of India --
   All State Banks are allowed to accept RTI fees. Payment can be made under the RTI account head and the receipt should be attached to the application and sent by Registered Post Acknowledgement Due.

Note: For Central Government Departments payments can be made by cash, through Demand Drafts, Postal Orders or through RTI counters at the nearest Post Office.

Step 5: The PIO should respond within 30 days of the receipt of the application failing which the applicant should make the First Appeal to the Appellate Authority of the same department. The appeal should be addressed to the Appellate Authority (the postal address is usually the same as the PIO).

Step 6:

The Appellate Authority gets another 30 days to respond failing which the applicant can make the 2nd appeal to the State Information Commission (for the State Government Departments) or Central Information Commission (for Central Government Departments) as the case may be.

• Making aware of plastic things

• Avoid burning of plastics

• Planting trees

• Recycling the waste things.

These are the major things we should focus. So everyone in the world must contribute to reduce the global warming and make our environmental garden