Bhadson cleanest, owes it to 11 safai karamchari

Karam Prakash

Tribune News Service

Patiala, May 18

Bhadson, a small town in Patiala district, has been declared the cleanest city in north India, which includes J&K, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Delhi. 

Bhadson, located nearly 30 km from Patiala, has bagged the honour under the ‘Swachh Survekshan 2018’ in the category of towns whose population is below 1 lakh. A small staff of just 11 ‘safai sewaks’ and four garbage collectors have turned the town into the cleanest in the region. 

The journey of making Bhadson clean began with the process of waste segregation in all 11 wards of the town. Taking the cleanliness campaign forward, each of the 1,470 households in the town was provided with two dustbins. 

In fact, in the first phase, residents were made aware through ‘boliyan’ (couplets) to throw wet and dry waste in different dustbins. Thereafter, the 11 garbage-collecting rickshaws, with blue and green coloured bins, used to collect the waste from the houses. The garbage was then dumped into 24 compost pits which converted it into organic manure. 

Jiwanjot Kaur, Deputy Director, Local Bodies, Patiala region, said, “We used simple Class X science lessons for waste management. The plan worked well for us. Moreover, there is high demand from nursery owners for the organic manure produced from the waste material. ‘Swachhata clubs’ were also formed in government schools wherein students recycled the waste into things used for decoration purposes in the school.” 

Applauding the efforts of safai sewaks, she said, “We will be felicitating our cleanliness workers soon to motivate them further.”  

Chetan Singh Benipal of Bhadson said, “The result is an outcome of the joint efforts by the nagar panchayat and residents of the town.”