SWACHH
BHARAT
During my service period
about 15 years back I have constructed a house in a remote locality with my
house being the last one in the row. A couple of plots were vacant even before
my house in the row.
Front
row had only a corner house. For all practical purposes my house was the last
house in the area and I was fearing for any theft may take place in my house.
God Bless nothing of that sort has happened in the past.
Now
that I am retired and landed to the same house for settling, as is expected
entire row is packed by houses except one in a row in front and at the back. My
house now needs quite a good attention, calls for repairs of developed cracks
and choked drains. Added to it naturally this calls for a good white/ color
washing of a modern type.
During
my service I had quite a good opportunity to travel across the length and
breadth of this country. During the period I have visited almost all the metro
cities and many a capitals of Indian states. The common points worth noting
were multistoried concrete jungles – retraining the sunshine to fall on the
earth. Many a localities will have dark rooms in the houses even day time and
they need lights on for any work to be carried out. Heavy traffic movement in
cities is mostly disciplined to quite some extant on the main roads. The
vehicles move bumper to bumper in a way that even at 40-60 kmph speed no
vehicle hits another one. No arbitrary lane changing and U turns is beauty of
the traffic. Probably ever commuter knows if I fail to observe rules someday I
myself may land into issues.
Next
major issue is Garbage Management. I have seen Garbage collecting vans on the
roads – may be they collect garbage from destined bins places at some decided
locations as House hold ladies and maids have been noted with their garbage
bags / bins and decanting them in the garbage dumps. These dumps do stink and
cause issues of mosquito etc in the vicinity but never heard of any complaints
from the residents. Many of the high rise buildings have Garbage chutes wherein
residents can dump the garbage in the bags and then it is carried away
periodically by municipality vans vacating the chutes for the further usage.
In
some cities there are garbage collectors, who collect the garbage from house to
house and dispose it off into larger bins of may be to municipal vans. These
collector are mostly contract labourers and are paid meagerly. Therefore quite
many times they demand a monthly payment arbitrarily from residents and even
residents happily part with that little sum for the benefit they reap in lieu
of it.
The
beautiful thing I have noted is that as in every field in this field also there
are persons who want to avoid/ save even that small sum and find alternate ways
to resolve.
1. Add
garbage to others garbage in their bin with or without sharing the expenses –
with or without the info to the bin owner.
2. Dispose
the garbage in streets opposite to the house or throw it right down to ground
from any of the floor without bothering the concern caused to other resident in
the building and in the nearby areas where the garbage is disposed.
3. Use
the neighbouring vacant plots as garbage dumping yard. Normally owners of
vacant plots do not stay nearby and are unable to observe the menace caused.
Therefore this becomes a convenient way to handle the garbage.
Owners
of such vacant plots are mostly rich and invest into plots for rich dividends
later. Therefore they never bother about the plot and its condition for years
together and whenever they visit there, they never bother to meet the neighbours
for knowing if there is any valuable info affecting them. They even do not
bother to clear shrubs and garbage from their plot as it hardly effect them.
Residents
in the vicinity face the furor of various diseases, mosquito menace and also
variety of unhygienic conditions but never think that this is because of their own carelessness and dropping the garbage
into the nearby vacant plot where the insects called bacteria brew.
If
there is someone who realizes the root cause of the problem and raises the
voice against such bad practices he / she is stamped bad soul and residents
start criticising. Therefore in order to avoid unwanted tussle no body speaks
against such ill habits.
The
person or group of persons affected most by the menace will burn the garbage
one day to do away with the menace. This ion turn creates smoke pollution and
the air gets polluted. The infants and older ones have their bit of bad
experience and the asthmatic people suffer the maximum. Those who leave the
area for their office/ shops or business get rid of the smoke pollution leaving
behind their bit also for the members who stay back at home.
People
demand tolerance here but if tolerated the situation gets aggravated and
repeats rather frequently. It is better that the car is taken at the first
instant itself. This is observed in almost all the cities without any
exception.
I m
yet tio come across a situation where in this problem is attempted to be
addressed and hence the menace continues unabated.
In
such situations the municipality should observe the strictness and penalize the
owner of the plot for not maintaining hygiene in the area. One must take care
of cleanliness of the plot by himself visiting periodically or engaging someone
and entrusting the work at the terms they decide. Owner must be made
responsible for the neatness there.
Here
the residents associations and local can assist the municipality by observing
strictness in their area. They as a body may take responsibility of maintaining
the vacant plot clear of garbage and bushes by periodically having the cleaning
drive at some cost to owner, who may be happy to bear the expenses.
Though
the issue is very important otherwise also
but with the present standing call of Swachh Bharat programme for which
Government has recently started levying tax also, it needs more and more
attention of all those who are affected, who have responsibility of managing
the garbage and plot owners who have a responsibility towards the society.
Let
us all join hands and keep selves neat - clean and healthy.
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