PM's Swachh Bharat Abhiyan a damp squib at ground level
Due to the ignorance of various officials of the district administration, the formula of nomination of nine members for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Swachh Bharat Abhiyan has refused to take off at the ground level.
Due to the ignorance of various officials of the district administration, the formula of nomination of nine members for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Swachh Bharat Abhiyan has refused to take off at the ground level.
The district administration has been organising awareness programmes in the name of the campaign and has also held cleanliness drives in the city.
Various prominent officials such as mayor, deputy commissioner and other responsible officials of the district administration also took up brooms to clean the royal city. The media also covered the event to motivate the people of the city but the poor implementation of the mission did not let the campaign become a success.
Areas such as Old Lal Bagh, Dashmesh Nagar, Gur Mandi, Sanouri Adda, Chotti Nadi, Badi Nadi, the area behind Modi College, Safavadi Gate and Bishan Nagar, along with some other areas, are still waiting for the mobilisation of people to clean their respective areas.
Genesis of the campaign
The Prime Minister had launched the campaign on October 2, commemorating the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. He had also nominated nine prominent personalities to make them part of the campaign and asked them to further nominate at least nine people to make the campaign a success.
The campaign, which depended on networking among people, could not be successful as people did not consider the nomination chain a useful tool.
Official apathy
After contacting a number of officials, HT found that nobody took Modi's suggestion seriously. Deputy commissioner Varun Roojam admitted that he did not nominate any members but said he would initiate the process soon. Roojam said, "I know it is a good suggestion for the campaign but there are a number of other strategies to achieve targets."
Talking about the implementation of the campaign, he said the district administration had adopted it on two levels.
"At the first level, the administration is organising awareness programmes in schools and colleges. As far as implementation is concerned, it will take some time as we don't have proper mechanism for the disposal of garbage," Roojam said.
He added that by next year, solid waste management system would be installed and by 2019, the targets would be achieved.