Nagpur.
As the nation is swaying in the wave of making their land the cleaner and hygienic place to live, the ground reality limits cleanliness drive to mere photo sessions and media coverage. And to make the situation worse, Nagpur too surfaces as no exception.
Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (Campaign Clean India) which is a national level campaign by the Government of India covering 4041 statutory towns to clean the streets, roads and infrastructure of the country, was officially launched on October 2, 2014 at Rajghat, New Delhi, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself wielded broom and cleaned a road. This campaign aims to accomplish the vision of ‘Clean India’ by October 2, 2019, 150th birthday of Mahatma Gandhi and is expected to cost over Rs 62000 crores. The campaign was described as “beyond politics” and “inspired by patriotism”.
This campaign was put into action even in the city and all the sitting MLAs, Ministers, Government employees from big shots to the lowest employee was involved in the campaign.
Many public places were cleaned in this campaign. Many leaders also utilized this campaign as a photo opportunity.
However shocking revelation came to the fore as Nagpur Today checked out to see if the campaign lived to its logical end. What was observed showed the apathy of the Sanitation Department, Workers, NMC and even the Corporators?
Blot in the beauty of Futala
At Futala Lake premises, which falls under the jurisdiction of MLA of West Nagpur Sudhakar Deshmukh, the place where the idols of Lord Ganesh are immersed, has acquired such a huge pile of flowers, polythene, food material, waste cloth, domestic garbage etc. Countless pigs and cows were seen with their small ones enjoying the garbage. The amount of mosquitoes enjoying the filth could give all the visitors of Futala Lake double dose of Dengue.
Pump House piles up more garbage
The scene is same at the Pump House near Hanuman Temple on the way to Futala Lake. Polythene bags, domestic waste and garbage were seen littered right outside the gate. Are the workers of the pump-house on leave???
Worst hygiene situation
The scene is the same at Police Line Takli area, near the Kali Mata Mandir. Garbage which included domestic waste, polythene covers/bags etc is seen littered over a large area. This area is surrounded by trees and having rain water accumulated in small quantities at many places giving the area right breeding ground for dengue. Are the cops; families immune to dengue???
