BJP councillor Ravi Kant Sharma said that he held events at Dadumajra, sectors 40 and 54 to mark Mahatma Gandhi’s birth celebrations but at his personal level.
Many BJP councillors have expressed disappointment as the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation held no official function to mark the 4th Swachhta Diwas on Tuesday. Unlike previous years, no official event to mark the celebrations of Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday, which is also the Swachhta Diwas, was scheduled for Tuesday, the councillors said. They alleged that they kept waiting for a communication but “the day was forgotten by the mayor”.
BJP councillor and former mayor Asha Jaswal told Chandigarh Newsline, “I kept waiting for a communication from mayor’s office but there was none. This is a day when you can remind people to carry out cleanliness in and around their houses. At least one official event should have been held to mark the celebrations.” Jaswal added that in the previous years, they had been cleaning the offices, public toilets to mark this day.
“As there was no MC event when we could engage people in the cleanliness campaigns, we were left with no other option but to ask mahila morchas to hold cleanliness events at different colonies at their own level,” she added.
BJP councillor Ravi Kant Sharma said that he held events at Dadumajra, sectors 40 and 54 to mark Mahatma Gandhi’s birth celebrations but at his personal level. “It would have been more effective had there been an official function by MC as all the councillors would have simultaneously engaged everyone in the cleanliness campaigns. I don’t know how celebrations were given a miss this time,” Sharma said. BJP councillor Arun Sood added that he had called the mayor’s office as well.
“I had even called the Mayor’s PA this morning to know if any celebrations or cleanliness campaigns were scheduled for today. He said there was no such official event lined up. What to talk of getting Chandigarh on rank one in swachhta, when you can’t even remember how important the day is today? It’s PM Narendra Modi’s dream project,” Sood stated.
Mayor Davesh Moudgil addressed an event organised by Residents Welfare Association in Sector 23 in the evening regarding segregation of waste at source level and home composting at green park. Moudgil did not respond to repeated phone calls. In the evening, a release by the MC stated that sanitary inspectors carried out cleanliness drives in different colonies and slums to mark the Swachhta Diwas.