KOCHI:
Kerala Travel Mart (KTM) Society is set to implement the initiatives under the nascent Green Cochin Mission as its major policy programme to speed up the ongoing efforts to free Kerala’s top tourist city of waste.
The 2000-founded institution, the biggest tourism body of Kerala, which conducts the biennial KTM that hosts the country’s largest buyer-seller meet in the tourism segment, will extend “complete cooperation” to the cleanliness drive launched by the Ernakulam District Legal Services Authority ten days ago.
The Green Cochin Mission, which was inaugurated on December 20, enjoys the assistance of Kochi Corporation, district administration, Kerala Suchitwa Mission, Indian Medical Association, Childline India, Justice Brigade, Haritha Keralam, National Health Mission and Motor Vehicles Department besides educational institutes, NGOs and other private agencies.
Waste management is focal to a nine-point programme the KTM has been implementing for four years as part of its green initiatives, according to its convener and former president Abraham George. Given that the Green Cochin Mission has accorded priority to segregating organic waste from inorganic, KTM is launching awareness drives on this task, he revealed. Besides giving school students classes on the matter, KTM will hold awareness sessions for domestic travellers with cooperation from foreign tourists.
KTM, for instance, is lending full support to the Mission’s bid to make the Cochin Carnival’s New Year celebrations green, according to the top functionaries of the society. The organisation has charted a round-the-year cleanliness drive that will begin with Fort Kochi, KTM president Baby Mathew Somatheeram said. “That will subsequently spread to other parts of the state,” he added.
KTM Secretary Jose Pradeep said the society was trying to get a brand ambassador for the green initiatives.
The Green Cochin Mission is aiming, among others, to rejuvenate the city’s canals and check encroachment so as achieve its zero pollution of soil and water alongside greening Kochi. Its social media wing, too, is working full swing, while trying to rope in taxi and auto-rickshaw drivers besides roadside vendors.
