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Selfie Sunday: PAC pours scorn on Ludhiana MC over its inaction on garbage menace
As soon as the PAC team arrived at the site, the Ludhiana MC staff also swung into action and began cleaning the garbage collected at the site
Browned off with the garbage menace on the roads and near Buddha Nullah, the city-based environmentalists along with the activists from Public Action Committee Sutlej and Mattewara, gathered at an illegal garbage dumping point near Kamla Lohtia College here on Sunday.
For the seventh consecutive occasion, PAC members have been observing the Selfie Sunday to highlight the menace of littering garbage in the open.
In a satirical take, the PAC members had also made use of Veeru, Jai and Basanti from Bollywood’s superhit movie Sholay and also posters from another superhit film Lagaan and Hera Pheri to draw the public’s attention towards the menace.
The PAC had also invited the nearly elected MLA from North constituency, Madan Lal, at the event site but the latter did not visit.
Didar Singh, a shopkeeper, said for the past nearly 22 years, the municipal corporation (MC) staff was illegally dumping garbage at the site. Several requests were made but not action was taken.
Another resident said the garbage was dumped right outside his shop due to which he could not open the premises.
As soon as the PAC team arrived at the site, the MC staff also swung into action and began cleaning the garbage collected at the site.
The civic staff used as many as seven tippers to remove the pile of garbage.
Kapil Arora from the Council of Engineers said satire is the best method of spreading a message. “We decided to use the dialogue from Sholey, Lagan and other Bollywood films to draw the attention civic body towards the menace,” he said, adding that cleaning the area for a day is not enough. They want a permanent solution to the problem.
The activists said the civic body has failed in managing solid, construction and demolition waste. They blamed the MC for their inaction.
Kuldeep Singh Khaira and Jaskirat Singh, both environmental activists, said, “The Buddha Nullah has not only turned the toxic vein of the city but the vacant area around it has become a dumping ground of garbage. Sadly, the MC authorities are doing precious little to fix the problem.”
“The municipal authorities have failed on every front, be it a solution to waste management problems or any other civic woes of the city. The municipal authorities have even lied to the National GreenTribunal (NGT) in the district environment plan with laughable claims such as 50% segregation of domestic waste being achieved in Ludhiana,” they said.
