Civic body kicks off road-cleaning drive in city

Ludhiana: A cleanliness drive was kicked off from various city roads by the municipal corporation here on Wednesday. The officials have been told to take up all city roads one by one and after cleaning up these, they will have to ensure daily cleanliness on a similar pattern. The zonal commissioners and sanitation employees have been engaged for this task and in case they fail to maintain cleanliness, action will be taken against them.
On Wednesday, the drive was started from Bhai Bala chowk towards Pakhowal Road. The zonal commissioners were present on the roads in the morning at 8am for monitoring the cleanliness drive. There were at least 50 sweepers doing cleaning on one road and commuters who were using the road were surprised to see the cleaning process because usually they don’t get a chance to see so many sweepers in a row for cleaning of roads. Not only this, two vehicles were also moving along with sweepers for collecting the dust and other garbage collected from roadside.
The MC commissioner, K P Brar, after starting the drive in the morning said, “The roads should be cleaned up properly and this is what we are trying to do with the help of sanitation staff. The zonal commissioners have been asked to select roads one by one and then ensure regular cleaning of these roads.” She said she would impose fine on zonal commissioners as well as sanitation employees if they failed to maintain the hygiene, but she appealed to the residents for becoming part of this drive by not littering on roads.
However, the officials cited that during a meeting chaired by Punjab food, civil supplies and consumer affairs minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu on February 8, the minister had issued strict directions to the MC health branch staff to ensure proper cleanliness on all city roads, so they have kicked off this drive. But sources revealed that members of an NGT-monitoring committee are also visiting the city on Thursday, so this can be an attempt to make them feel that the city is clean because this time their visit is about solid waste management and cleanliness.
Meanwhile, mayor Balkar Singh Sandhu assured the city residents that within this week, all main city roads would present a neat and clean look as adequate staff from the MC’s health branch has been deputed for this work. He said the staff had also been directed to ensure that lifting of solid waste from secondary collection points should be done twice daily.