Bhopal: “We did our best’, was what the Mayor Alok Sharma had to say as Bhopal, the state capital, slipped to 19th rank from the 2nd position it had held tightly for two consecutive years in the Swachh Survekshan 2019. Well, Mr Mayor, your ‘best’ was not good enough. Bhopal managed to bag the award of cleanest state capital among 29 others.
Mayor, after receiving the award from President Ram Nath Kovind at a ceremony in New Delhi, had said, “It is a proud moment for us to have received the award from president of India for being the cleanest state capital. We have done out best, but frequent transfer of officials in the civic body has hit our efforts and so we slipped from 2nd position to 19th rank.”
And only a holistic approach can transform the Swachh campaign into a public movement. While Indore was adjudged country’s cleanest city for the third straight year, Ambikapur in Chhattisgarh trounced Bhopal and occupied the coveted position.
The city slipped 17 spots to the 19th position in Swachh Survey, a big setback, however, the Mayor Alok Sharma and Bhopal Municipal Corporation commissioner B Vijay Dutta seemed ‘satisfied’ with the cleanest state Capital tag.
The Mayor, however, said that more efforts need to put in to improve the ranking and for this people participation was also very crucial.
While the concerned authorities would now look into the reason for the dismal performance in the survey, Free Press here is pointing some visible causes that affected the city’s ranking.
Frequent transfer of officers
Frequent transfers of top official at BMC hit hard the efforts of the civic body. The new guidelines regarding Swachh Survekshan arrived in March 2018 and then Priyanka Das was municipal commissioner. However, she was shifted to Hoshangabad after Congress leaders complained against her that she had donned a scarf of BJP during celebrations on Bhopal coming second in the cleanliness survey in 2017-18. Avinash Lavania, who had replaced her, too was transferred within six months. The new municipal chief commissioner B Vijay Dutta was on the job but before he could complete his visit to 19 zones, he went on leave for family reasons. Abhijeet Agrawal, another IAS officer was given the charge for a while, before he could do anything on the survey front, Dutts was back and was back on the job improving city’s ranking in the survey. Besides, the senior most officer and additional commissioner M P Singh who was in-charge of health and sanitation departments was also transferred and replaced by Satyendra Dhakare in September . Earlier this year in January, Singh again assumed office but by then the survey was on and three centre teams were in city taking round in every ward.
Transfer stations turn into trenching ground
City has as many as eight transfer stations where waste segregation was to be done and then the segregated garbage was to be transferred to Adampur Chhawni landfill . However, all the transfer stations have transformed into trenching ground housing huge piles of garbage, that too unsegregated. The ‘scientifc’ closure of garbage dumping yard Bhanpur Khanti and the dumping of waste at Adampur Chhawni area are also being questioned. Neither the Bhanpur was closed as per rule nor Adampur has turned into a proper landfill site.
Infighting between BJP and Cong corporators
The infighting between BJP and Congress corporators is one of the reasons that pulled the city to 19 position from 2 rank that it held for two years in a row. Few of the corporators blamed the Mayor for only focusing on wards represented by BJP corporators. Sanitation and other related works were not undertaken properly at wards of Congress corporators, and this was exposed during the survey.
City fails in waste segregation
Waste segregation at household level was also not undertaken earnestly. Segregation of dry and wet waste was one of the parameters of cleanliness survey, on which the city failed miserably. BMC’s green waste recycling plant which was to generate bio gas to be used for cooking in kitchens under Deendayal Rasoi Yojana is also lying idle as it doesn’t have enough raw material to process. Around 2.5 tonnes of green waste is collected in the city but it is not segregated. Only 20 kilograms of waste is now turning up at the plant, beating its very purpose.
Lack of awareness, public participation
Unlike previous years, the lack of public awareness and involvement was pretty evident this time. Previously, Mayor himself had taken to street and had launched “roko toko” campaign to make city open defecation free. People too remained indifferent as they cared least to segregate dry-wet waste.
Alok Sharma, Mayor
Local corporators should also work with us as it is a public movement. A few corproators never picked broom to spread a message of cleanliness before public.
Mohamad Sageer, leader of opposition, BMC
Mayor Alok Sharma merely paid visit to wards but never sought inquired from corproators who are aware of the ground realities of the area.
Compost pit or garbage bin
The on-site compost pits that were built in around 36 parks in city have turned into garbage bins. These pits were constructed in the parks to make urea with fallen leaves and other greens. However, today they are used for dumping plastic waste.
G Vyas, Ex-advisor to Rajeev Gandhi watershed mission
It’s not about winning or losing. Competition is a healthy sign for improvement. Only one can be on top, but other cities too which participated and made equal efforts. The city was to compete with over 4000 cities.
Subhash C Pandey, Environmentalist
The 19th rank that Bhopal has got is also satisfactory as the filth city has worsened. The transfer stations that have come up in different areas are sheer violation of environment protection Act. These are being run unscientifically and garbage there is also affecting the ground water.