Mohinder Verma
Cities are the engines of growth and urban India contribute to about 70% of country’s GDP. For cities to continue their contribution and provide quality of life to citizens, urban cleanliness is of central importance. Keeping this in mind Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched Swachh Bharat Mission to make India Open Defecation Free and clean by 2nd October 2019. Thereafter, in order to foster a healthy competition between cities for improving cleanliness standards, the Union Ministry of Urban Development started the “Swachh Survekshan” survey in 2016 which ranked 73 cities across the country. On the same lines, during the current year the Union Ministry conducted second “Swachh Survekshan” covering 500 cities of the country.
The performance evaluation of the “Swachh Survekshan” was conducted by Quality Council of India (QCI), an autonomous body established by Government of India in 1997 for quality assurance in all spheres of activities including governance. The survey evaluated cities along various parameters, including construction of individual household toilets and community toilets, door-to-door collection of garbage and solid waste management and treatment. The cities were ranked on the basis of data provided by municipal body, data collected through direct observations and independent assessment and collection of direct citizen feedback.
As far as municipal documentation is concerned, Jammu city has scored only 347 points out of 900 points. Similarly, it has received merely 269 points out of 500 points on independent observation front and bagged only 274 points out of total 600 points on citizen feedback and Swatchta front. In total, Jammu city has obtained only 891 points out of 2000 points.
The poor ranking of Jammu city in “Swachh Survekshan-2017” has clearly established that only hype is being created by the politicians as well as bureaucrats about Swachh Bharat campaign and there is absolutely no focus on critical systemic flaws, which are prevailing in the system since decades and are actually responsible for the blot on the face of City of Temples. The most astonishing fact is that none of the Governments in Jammu and Kashmir including the present People’s Democratic Party-Bharatiya Janata Party Coalition tried to remove these flaws which have rendered the Jammu Municipal Corporation as only a glorified version of municipal committee of any small town of the State.
No doubt poor ranking of winter capital city in the country-wide survey has put the present dispensation in the dock especially in the light of much hype being created over Swachh Bharat campaign but the previous dispensations cannot absolve themselves of being party to this blot as they had also failed to lay focus on the systemic flaws. The only advantage in their favour is that during their tenure no such survey was conducted. Had this been done in the past, Jammu city would have been dubbed as ‘dirtiest’ city much earlier.
Anyhow, dismal picture of Jammu painted in the survey is enough indication that time has come to stop making lofty slogans about different schemes floated by the Union Urban Development Ministry and lay required focus on removing the flaws otherwise the possibility of Jammu city declining on the tally of clean cities in future cannot be ruled out. The politicians as well as bureaucrats must understand that awareness about cleanliness is just one part of the issue and not a whole issue.
For example, solid waste management in scientific manner was one of the parameters for measuring the performance of the cities under “Swachh Survekshan” but this vital aspect has failed to get required attention in respect of Jammu city till date. Like the previous Governments, the present dispensation too flagged this as important issue at various forums but the ground situation is totally contrary and the municipal solid waste is being handled in most unscientific manner. The waste is being dumped mostly on the banks of River Tawi thereby polluting this water body also. Moreover, there is absolutely no focus on segregation of waste, which otherwise is an important aspect, and has received priority attention in several States of the country.
Most shocking aspect is that people have been given liberty to dump waste in one or two corners of their localities before being lifted by the vehicles of the Jammu Municipal Corporation that too once in a day. This practice is going on for years together despite the fact that this is fraught with the danger of inviting health hazards. Till date, house-to-house collection of garbage has not received the required attention although majority of the people are ready to pay for the same to the Jammu Municipal Corporation.
Though the jurisdiction of Jammu Municipal Corporation has increased considerably during the past some years yet the vital aspect of increasing manpower particularly of sanitation and enforcement wings has not received the due attention and the staff strength is almost the same as was over a decade back. Unfortunately, Jammu is still a city where for getting the waste lifted from locality you need good relations with Municipal Commissioner or Health Officer otherwise nobody will come voluntarily on the plea of lack of manpower.
The intensity of the situation can be gauged from the fact that when some Safaikaramcharies are diverted from one locality to another for cleanliness operation during VIP visits, the particular locality remains deprived of routine cleanliness and this practice continues for days together on the same pretext. Actually, Jammu Municipal Corporation is just the glorified version of Municipal Committee of any small town of the State otherwise it has nothing to boast of on sanitation, solid waste management and any other important front.
While completely ignoring all these aspects, the successive Governments including the present dispensation also failed to ensure proper coordination between district administration, Municipal Corporation and Jammu Development Authority as all these agencies are equal stakeholders in making the city one of the cleanest cities. For example, several times officer senior to the District Collector is posted as Municipal Commissioner and this becomes the major reason behind lack of frequent interactions between them. While Municipal Commissioners feels awkward in approaching junior officer on certain issues, the latter also lives under the impression that he should be contacted from the other side being head of the district.
Unless all these critical systematic flaws are removed, Jammu city is not going to raise its level of cleanliness merely by generating awareness under Swachh Bharat Mission. It becomes the responsibility of the MLAs from the Jammu city, who fortunately are part and parcel of the ruling coalition in the State, to put pressure on the Minister for Urban Development, who again is from the same party, so that systemic flaws are removed and are not carried forward any more otherwise Prime Minister’s Swachh Bharat dream will remain unrealized especially in the City of Temples, which at present carries the tag of one of the dirtiest cities of the country.
Moreover, it is also the responsibility of the top brass of the Housing and Urban Development to ensure immediate start of work on solid waste management, door to door collection of garbage and increasing manpower of the Jammu Municipal Corporation by projecting the issues before the concerned authorities. Even the people of the Jammu city have an important role to play to get rid of the tag of dirtiest city and they should shun the habit of throwing garbage here and there. After all this is the City of Temples and it should not become city of garbage.
The independent observers are of the view that present dispensation should lay focus on all these aspects while generating awareness about Swachh Bharat Mission so that during next “Swachh Survekshan” Jammu city is able to improve its position.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
