City not so Beautiful

IN a major embarrassment, Chandigarh, which proudly carries the tag of City Beautiful, has got a blot on its clean image. From its third spot in the Swachh Survekshan ranking last year, the city has slid to the 20th place in the 2019 list delineating the cleanest cities of the country. Earlier, Chandigarh had slipped from the second rank in 2016 to land in the 11th position in 2017 before regaining its glory when it bagged the third place in 2018. The alternating rise and fall in its performance levels is reflective of the resolve of the citizens as well as the civic body to plug the gaps revealed by the survey. 

The poor score in the field of waste management in 2018 was the main hurdle for the city to overcome and achieve its goal of scoring the top position in 2019. Putting in place an effective waste segregation mechanism at source and in every household and its adequate disposal would have prevented its downslide. The Chandigarh Municipal Corporation did attempt to take over the garbage collection job from the private door-to-door collectors, but it was thwarted by a section of the councillors. However, the promised streamlining of the wet and dry filth remains unfulfilled, costing the city its ranking. The garbage processing and compost plants in Dadu Majra village also must pass muster. Only then will the UT’s clean-up act give competition to Indore, which has in an exemplary manner retained its top rank for the third consecutive year even though it is much bigger than Chandigarh.

In fact, the cause for the poor rankings of most cities of Punjab and Haryana is the same: laxity in waste management. They need to take a leaf out of Rajkot which has jumped from the 35th place to ninth. Its campaign to sensitise the residents about separating waste has paid off. Cleanliness is crucial to health. We Indians need to shed our dirty habit of littering, spitting and urinating in public. Let us keep our surroundings as hygienic as we do our homes, irrespective of any cleanliness surveys.