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Swachh iconic places: Collective green and clean efforts at Golden Temple
AMRITSAR Thousands visit the Golden Temple daily and team up with the authorities to keep it clean. The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) maintains
AMRITSAR Thousands visit the Golden Temple daily and team up with the authorities to keep it clean. The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) maintains the shrine complex, while the Amritsar Municipal Corporation (MC) is responsible for the surrounding areas, including Heritage Street.
MC commissioner Harbir Singh will be accepting the first runner-up award for the shrine on Friday.
“The green and clean initiatives and the efforts of devotees helped us achieve the second rank,” MC joint commissioner Nitish Singla said.
“At least 200 SGPC employees maintain the Golden Temple and its surrounding areas daily. The parikarma (circumambulation) is washed thrice a day by devotees. There are four additional managers of the Golden Temple who oversee its cleanliness. More than 500 volunteers perform sewa in the langar hall (community kitchen) daily. The seven temple serai (inns) have a cleanliness supervisor each to oversee the work of 20 employees,” said Jagtar Singh, the additional manager of Golden Temple.
MC employees take away two trucks full of garbage, including kitchen waste, from the shrine on weekdays, while their count increases to three during weekends.
Besides cleanliness, the green initiatives taken by the SGPC, including planting vines in the parikarma; vertical gardens at the entrance of the shrine; a state-of-the-art water recharging and recycling system; organic langar based on solar energy; ban on plastic bags; and the use of eco-friendly carry bags, all helped the shrine win the second position.
Twenty-five employees of a mechanical sweeping private company were hired by the MC in 2016. They help keep the Heritage Street clean. “The street is washed every night and 110 dustbins have been installed. The bins are emptied twice daily,” said Manjinder Singh, the firm manager.
Under the Rs 10-crore project, the MC installed 10 polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottle crushing machines on Heritage Street. There are plans to install smart dustbins and water ATMs besides building more public toilets. The MC will soon install a biogas plant inside the Golden Temple’s langar hall at a cost of Rs 2.5 crore to treat the three metric tonnes of kitchen waste daily.
