District administration launches initiative to make cloth pouches for mobile phones in polling booths

Kochi: Polling stations will now have a place to keep the phones safe before entering the voting centre. The district administration has decided to arrange pouches made of old cloth to keep phones.A project to collect unused cloth from homes and convert it into ‘Green Mobile Keeping Pouches' will be launched on Tuesday. This new initiative is in collaboration with Suchitva Mission and Haritha Keralam Mission. District collector G Priyanka, who is also district election officer, said this time, apart from eco-friendly mobile keeping pouches, the project also aims to make various types of souvenirs from the waste left after the election. The tagline of the project is ‘Idle in the wardrobe, viral in the polling booth.' As part of this, old clothes will be collected at Ernakulam Civil Station from Tuesday to Thursday. Old clothes, sarees and bedsheets will be accepted. Only cotton clothes will be accepted. Kudumbashree units are using the collected cloth to make mobile phone pouches that can hold 9-12 phones. Approximately 3,200 pouches will be made for 3,148 booths in the district. Collector said there is also a plan to make pen stands, paperweights and paper lanterns using the paper and plastic waste left after the elections. As per the instructions of Election Commission, the district administration is trying to provide better facilities to the voters and give a message of environmental protection through this initiative.