Patna: The Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) has launched a citywide cleanliness campaign to prepare for the upcoming Navratri festival, with officials pledging to make celebrations “garbage-free” and “plastic-free”.
Municipal commissioner Animesh Kumar Parashar and additional commissioner Ashish Kumar briefed staff at Gandhi Maidan on Friday before deploying sanitation teams across the city’s six municipal zones. Officers have been tasked with carrying out night-time inspections and overseeing cleaning operations around puja pandals and other public areas.
“Garbage tends to pile up after Durga Puja festivities,” Ashish Kumar said. “This time, we want to ensure the festival is both garbage-free and plastic-free.”
As part of the campaign, puja committees have been instructed to set up “zero-waste” pandals, with awards promised for those that comply. Every pandal will be equipped with a “cleanliness urn” for the disposal of puja materials, while “bottle banks” will collect plastic waste. Municipal vehicles will carry out regular collections from these bins.
Awareness drives will also run throughout the festival period, with IEC (Information, Education and Communication) teams and “Swachhata Mitras” – citizen cleanliness ambassadors – deployed to encourage responsible waste disposal. Citizens can report littering or sanitation issues via the civic helpline number 155304 or a dedicated WhatsApp chatbot.
Night cleaning teams will conduct surprise inspections, supported by additional manpower and vehicles. Officials have appealed to residents to cooperate with the campaign under the slogan “My City, My Responsibility”.
The initiative covers all six zones of the PMC – Nutan Rajdhani, Patliputra, Kankarbagh, Bankipur, Azimabad and Patna City. Senior civic officials, including deputy commissioners, executive officers and ward nodal officers, attended the preparatory meeting.
