Mysuru:  In a significant move to make the city much cleaner and hygienic, the MCC signed a Memorandum of Understand (MoU) with Indian Tobacco Company (ITC) on waste segregation. It was signed at the MCC Old Council Hall this morning.

Speaking after signing the agreement, MCC Commissioner G. Jagadeesha said the agreement has been signed after the State Government gave its approval under the Corporate Social Responsibility (OSR) initiative.

Pointing out that the agreement will get a big boost for Mysuru’s Swachh Bharath campaign and its bid to regain the cleanest city tag, Jagadeesha appealed for full public co-operation for making Mysuru more clean and hygienic and a much better place for living.

ITC Karnataka in-charge Afsar Ahmed said the ITC, under the CSR, has launched an initiative on waste segregation at source named as ‘Well Being Out of Waste’. The initiative is already in place in Bengaluru, Kolkata and New Delhi and Mysuru is the fourth city that has been taken up by the ITC.

Highlighting the need for segregation of waste, especially at mass generation sites such as hospitals, hotels and restaurants etc., he said that the ITC will purchase all the waste collected by the MCC in all the 65 wards and recycle it to produce compost, bio-gas and other such useful things.

Stressing on the need for scientific collection and segregation of waste, Ahmed said that appropriate methods will be adopted for segregation of waste which will be classified as dry, wet and sanitary wastes.

Underlining the need to educate and sensitise all the stakeholders on segregation of waste, he said that handbills on the entire process of waste segregation will be distributed among the public, so as to ensure that most effective way of segregation and collection. Ahmed presented a power-point presentation on creating wealth out of waste.

Mayor B.Bhagyavathi, Deputy Mayor M. Indira, Health Officer Dr. Nagaraj, ex-Mayor M.J. Ravikumar, Corporator K.T. Cheluvegowda, ITC General Manager G.N. Murthy, Waste Segregation Expert Ramakanth and other MCC officials were present.