No respite from insanitary conditions in Rohtak

Insanitary conditions due to the tardy lifting of garbage prevail on main roads and in market areas in Rohtak which clinched the tag of cleanest city across the state in the Swachh Survekshan-2023.

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Heaps of garbage lying along Subhash Road, Civil Road, Sonepat Road, Hisar Road and Delhi Road can be seen. People have no choice but to bear the foul stench emanating from it.

Garbage littered outside the local Civil Hospital and a nullah filled with dirt have become an eyesore not only for the visitors but also the nearby shopkeepers. Around 50-100 poor persons daily come to a rehri (cart) placed adjacent to the garbage dumping point to get free food there, but all of them are compelled to eat food amid unhygienic conditions.

“The garbage and nullah give out a foul smell every time. It is hard to serve and have food amid such an unhealthy condition that too outside a government hospital. The garbage is dumped here by people residing nearby, but is lifted once a day in an irregular manner,” said Anju who runs ‘Roti Bank’ for needy people at the rehri under the aegis of a social outfit.

A public toilet has also been constructed there, which multiplies the problem by raising a stink due to poor cleanliness. Interestingly, the women's toilet is kept locked and a female tea seller holds its key. “Males do not hesitate to use the women's toilet, hence it is kept locked. I unlock it when any female comes here to use it,” said Sunita, the tea seller.

Heaps of garbage at many points have piled up along the outer wall of Chhotu Ram Stadium. “It is not easy to work amid the foul smell. The garbage remains unlifted for several hours but no one bothers,” said Bablu, who runs a make-shift hair salon adjacent to the garbage dumping site.

Joginder, a shop owner on the Sonepat road, laments that people residing nearby dump garbage adjacent to his shop at night. “The garbage remains unattended on the road for several days, which is enough to know what the condition of cleanliness in Rohtak city is,” he added.

As per information, no tendering this year to outsource the road sweeping work due to court’s stay is the major reason behind the insanitary conditions, especially on main roads.

Though the Rohtak Municipal Corporation (MC) authorities are, at present, carrying out road sweeping task at their level, the efforts are proving “insufficient” to keep the city roads clean following the acute scarcity of sanitary workers. The workers first do their prime work of cleaning the residential areas and then perform the task of sweeping roads.

Earlier, outsourced employees used to clear the roads at night and the residents would find these clean in the morning, but now garbage can be seen along the roads in several pockets of the city.

The cleanliness of roads had played a vital role for Rohtak in securing the top position across the state in terms of cleanliness in the survey last year.

“A total of 625 sanitary staffers are, at present, working in the municipal corporation, which is almost half of the required strength that is needed, keeping in view the area and population of the city. The contract for sweeping main roads ended on March 31. Around 300 outsourced sanitary workers had engaged with the task. Now, this work is being done by the MC workers who are already overburdened,” said Sharvan Bohat, senior leader of the Nagar Palika Karamchari Sangh, Rohtak.

He maintained that they had demanded from the MC authorities to find out some alternatives to outsource the road sweeping work so as to relieve sanitary workers from it.

“We have created a third zone with four municipal wards which are not affected by the court’s stay, hence a tender of road sweeping work in these areas has been floated. This work is likely to be started by outsourced workers soon,” said an official of the MCR.

As far as the Swachh Survekshan-2023 report for other categories is concerned, the MCR had scored cent-percent in terms of cleanliness of public toilets and water bodies and 99 per cent in door-to-door garbage collection.

On being inspected, one of the three urinators at the public toilet located adjacent to the local PWD office was found non-functional. It was covered with plastic. The public toilets at Palika Bazar, Ambedkar Chowk, Jhajjar turn and Bhiwani stand were being maintained, while sanitation workers were not available outside the majority of the toilets.

The maintenance and sanitation works of the toilets have been outsourced by the MC authorities.

Adesh Saxena, former municipal councillor (MC), claimed that a sanitation worker had been deputed at each public toilet to keep it clean, hence they were bound to sit there during duty hours, but sanitary workers were hardly found sitting outside the toilets. The cleanliness of many toilets was not up to the mark, he added.

“The situation of cleanliness in the city has deteriorated in the past one year, so Rohtak may lose the tag of cleanest city of the state this time. Some toilets have closed, while segregation of solid waste is also not being done properly while collecting it from door to door," claimed Ashok Khurana, another former MC councillor.

The door-to-door collection of garbage in the municipal wards is going on and water bodies are also being maintained as usual this year, too but garbage is not being lifted properly from the roads.

“Besides two sweeping machines, sanitary workers have been engaged in sweeping the roads so as to keep these clean. The number of public toilets has gone up to 103 from 87 this year. Outsourced workers keep these clean. Similar is the situation with the maintenance of water bodies and door-to-door garbage collection work, hence we are quite confident about retaining the tag of the cleanest city this year as well,” claimed Dharmendra Singh, Commissioner, Municipal Corporation.

He maintained that the MC had improved in the source segregation and processing of garbage categories as two private firms had been engaged in this work this year. “Over 255 tonnes of garbage is collected door to door daily in the MC area and is segregated and processed at Sunariya village here,” the Commissioner added.

Meanwhile, Bharat Bhushan Batra, Congress MLA from Rohtak, said the district administration had utterly failed to ensure cleanliness of Rohtak city.

“Heaps of garbage can be seen in every nook and corner of the city. No efforts were made to get the court’s stay vacated over the tender of road sweeping works. Moreover, posters, banners, flexs and stickers pasted on public properties have made Rohtak an ugly city. The authorities are imposing fines, but not removing the publicity materials from the public properties, hence Rohtak will not be able to retain the tag of cleanest city in the state this time,” Batra added.