But for two recent reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General on Jammu district’s sanitation, we would not have known that we are living in highly hazardous ecological environs and substandard sanitary conditions. One report is on contaminated water supply and the other on non-disposal of piles of garbage. Both the reports are shocking and a sad commentary on both Departments. These reports have nothing to do with the politics of the State, and deal entirely with administrative aspects. The common factor that has contributed to this sordid picture is inefficiency of local administration in utilizing the funds and facilities provided by the Union Government. Precisely this has also been the observation of the Union HRD Minister who said the other day that the State Education Department had failed to properly implement various schemes proposed and financed by the Union Government.
From the reports of the CAG, it is becoming clear that the State Government is not geared to the task of implementing a variety of developmental schemes sponsored and financed by the centre. Either we have not the technical manpower with requisite expertise and efficiency, or there is inherently something wrong in the administrative structure that proves a hindrance to the administrative output. Another possibility of laxity on the part of concerned functionaries could be the element of non-accountability. Now if under central Government’s Accelerated Rural Water Supply Programme 133 new water supplying schemes were approved by the Board for the period 2003 -10 but only 32 were taken up and out of these only 20 were completed, why the concerned authorities of the State Government did not point it out and raise the issue with the higher authorities? Obviously, because there is no accountability, the programmes, by and large, got scuttled. Day in and day out, we find the people bringing out protest rallies against inadequate supply of drinking water. Authorities show scant concern towards the difficulties people are facing owing to scarcity of water. PHE responsible for supply of drinking water is quick to offer one or the other pretext for shortage in supply of drinking water. It never speaks of the shortfall in completing various new water supply schemes to various parts of the district and the city of Jammu.
According to the report of the CAG, half of the population of Jammu district drinks water full of faecal e-coli that has been declared unfit for drinking. The report has given stunning statistics obtained from the records with the Jammu Medical College which say that out of 115 samples of drinking water collected during 2010-11, 48 were found unfit for drinking. In the same way, during the period 2006 – 2010, as many as 1.6 lakh cases of water borne diseases were treated. These are alarming figures and surely the health of the people is faced with serious hazards in the entire district.
Equally shocking is CAG’s report on sanitary conditions of the city and the entire district of Jammu. The report says that nearly 7000 tons of municipal solid waste is dumped in open spaces, by the banks of nullahs and the river, year after year as there is no modern plant of waste treatment with the Municipal Corporation. Imagine how much pollution spreads in the air owing to the toxic gas emitted by these garbage dumps, and inhaled by the people in the town. The population of the city has increased owing to migration of rural population to urban areas and also owing to flux of refugees into the city. This has brought heavy pressure on services in the city and thus has resulted in pollution of air and contamination of water. The CAG has been regularly highlighting environmental, sanitary, ecological, traffic congestion, footpath grabbing and other matters in the context of performance of various Municipal Committees. However, we fail to see any worthwhile improvement being made. What the CAG has laid its finger upon is the precise malady that it has not made any study on some of the existing discrepancies. In other words, it means to say that there is no initiative and originality at any level in the municipal corporation structure. Absence of policy planning and deep thinking on how the standard of living and environment can be improved in the city is what is lacking. There are a number of areas that should come under focus of the experts at the Corporation. Besides that, the Municipal Committees have to involve the civil society from conceptual stage to implementation and execution stage. Unfortunately we do not find result oriented liaison between the elders of the civil society and the Government Departments. There should be a permanent joint consultative body as part of the Corporations, which would not only brief it on what are the short term and long term requirements of the city but also look into accountability aspect. The target should be to raise the status of the city to class A. As long as there is dedication for achieving this target and serious work culture supporting it, the raising of Jammu’s status to A class city will not be an unattainable dream. Jammu has the potential of becoming a beautiful city attracting tourists and pilgrims provided proper infrastructure and management are in place. It is a privilege to live in the capital city in any state of the country. But the capital city must offer all amenities that make life decent and respectable. In that sense the JMC, other Corporations have a lot more to do.
A word for the civil society should also be said. By and large, the cleanliness or untidiness of a city speaks about the culture of its denizens. It is the duty of the citizens to keep their roads, parks, lanes, drains and public places clean. The culture of not dirtying public places and sites has to be developed with some determination. In China and in Japan, a passer by will stop to pick up a scrap of paper or a bit of cigarette if it is lying on the road or the footpath. That is the level of civic sense in those advanced societies. We shall have to create that sense also if we want the Municipal Corporation to be of the expected level. We need to reform ourselves before asking our institutions to reform.
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