Dehra Dun : Even as choked drains overflow and the rains only add to the misery of the commuters with the water gathered on the roads, chief minister Harish Rawat and Dehra Dun Municipal Corporation Mayor, Vinod Chamoli are involved in a war of words over the garbage piles and overflowing garbage bins on the main and peripheral roads of the city.
While one is trying to score a point over the other, residents of the city have a harrowing time with garbage littering the roads and trying to negotiate the roads where water runs one foot deep. Visitors to the city are greeted with huge piles of garbage dumps and overflowing garbage bins where pigs and dogs vie with each other.
And even as volunteers of Making a Difference by Being the Difference (MAD for short) go about in right earnest almost on every Sunday trying to clear the garbage from the various oocalities of the city, chief minister Harish Rawat of the Congress government in the state took their cleaning drive to humiliate the BJP controlled Dehra Dun Municipal Corporation.
Not only did the chief minister join in the cleanliness drives of MAD by joining the volunteers for an hour or so, but he ensured that journalists were present and his photographs carried prominently in local and regional papers. He also chided the Municipal Corporation for paying a Nelson’s eye to the city’s cleanliness and also announced a sum of over Rs one crore for new bins and other paraphernalia for a cleaner Dehra Dun.
Obviously the Mayor, Vinod Chamoli, was not going to take it lying down and he told the media that the chief minister cannot have a cleaner Dehra Dun by posing with a spade and broom in hand near the garbage dumps. “If you want a cleaner city it will only be possible after fulfilling the various requirements of the Corporation, which the state government is not doing”, he added.
He said that besides providing the needed man power to the Corporation, the government also had to clear the DPR of the Solid Waste Management which was gathering dust in the government offices, adding that the Corporation was not asking for money to put the project into place, hastening to add that he took a positive view of Harish Rawat’s drive to cleanse the city.
Listing the shortage of various manpower that the Corporation was facing the Mayor also said that it had been decided to make collection points for garbage at eight places in the city so that it did not overflow into the roads all over, whereas for the localities 32 garbage bins will be put in place so that people did not throw the garbage on the roads.
Chamoli said that it had also been decided to make underground garbage dumping sites at 100 places in the city, which would be put into practice very shortly and so that tourists do not see the garbage and form a negative view of the city, it had also been decided that the garbage bins and containers would be removed from the main roads.
Obviously he also made it clear that one could not expect a clean city unless the people cooperate and appealed to all that they should ensure that throw the garbage in the containers or the garbage bins and not on the roads. He was apparently making this point as it had been observed that people carry polythene bags full of garbage on their scooters and cars and conveniently dump it on the roadsides.
A journalist with over 40 years of experience, Jagdish Bhatt was Editor, Hill Post (Uttarakhand).
Jagdish had worked with India’s leading English dailies, which include Times of India, Indian Express, Pioneer and several other reputed publications. A highly acclaimed journalist, he was a recipient of many awards
Jagdish Bhatt, aged 72, breathed his last on 28th August 2021 at his Dehradun residence.
