Swachhta Survey over, city stinks again

Nikhila Pant Dhawan

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, February 17

The Municipal Corporation Bathinda may have performed well in the Swachhta Survey 2018 which was conducted in the city earlier this year, but it has sure adopted a laidback attitude towards cleanliness in the city now.

Stray cattle feeding on heaps of garbage by roads, overflowing dustbins at secondary collection points and trash strewn on vacant plots are again beginning to become common sights in the city. The door-to-door garbage collection, which was made regular during the Swachhta Survey team, has become erratic again.

Residents of the city complained that since the door-to-door collection was not being conducted regularly, vacant plots had turned into virtual dumping grounds as residents were left with no option but to dump the household trash out in the open.

They alleged despite bringing the matter to the attention of the councillors of their respective wards and even after uploading the photographs of the garbage on Swachhta Application.

“The Swachhta Survey had sent the MCB into a tizzy and made it work hard but now sanitation conditions in the city have come back to where it was. The JITF workers sometimes don’t collect garbage for three-four days at a stretch. The sweepers clean the streets but leave the mounds of garbage at the end of the street,” said MM Behl, a resident of Panchvati Nagar.

Sushil Bansal, a resident of Bhagu Road, said, “For the past several days, garbage heaps can be seen outside the boundary wall of St Joseph’s Convent School. Despite uploading the photographs on the Swachhta App, the garbage was not picked. I even called in the MCB number and was assured that the place will be cleaned but no action was taken.”

Mayor Balwant Rai Nath said the MC was taking steps to ensure that cleanliness was maintained in the city. “We are attending to the complaints of the residents and send sanitation workers to places and make sure that the garbage is picked after we receive complaints on the Swachhta App. We will look into complaints,” he said.