Plastic choking pristine Dharamsala rivulets

Raghav Guleria

Dharamsala, April 11

All is not well with Dharamsala, the much-hyped Smart City in the making. The wisdom gained by corporation delegates through their foreign visits has apparently failed to bring about the desired results.

Planning on part of Smart City officials has remained confined primarily to concretisation of the town for reasons best known to them. Municipal commissioners, one after the other, have been shifted with no accountability fixed for acts of commission or omission.

All this has led to chaos, with no durable solution to any of the problems faced by the town, especially littering. Heaps of garbage can be spotted at conspicuous locations in the town — the headquarters of the district — often termed the state’s tourism capital.

Plastic pouches — supposedly banned in the state — can be spotted in abundance all over the town, threatening the very existence of the free-flowing rivers emerging out of the snow uphill.

The single-use plastic packages left scattered about the town are virtually choking the rivulets.

The stinking heaps of waste right in the middle of gushing waters are decaying, and the official machinery entrusted with finding a way out seems to be non-existent.

People who have been living in the town for a considerable amount of time are concerned for the pristine environment bestowed on it by Mother Nature.

They worry over the pathetic state of affairs, with no control mechanism or concern by the department.

Talking to The Tribune, Sanjay Kumbkarni, a hotelier, quoted Abraham Lincoln while discussing the state of affairs of the town.

“Today we dream that Dharamsala will be a Smart City tomorrow; then, we cannot evade the responsibility of doing that today,” he said.

Many like him have started asking questions now.

“If we, as citizens, have no responsibility and civic sense, then the laws and powers bestowed on the municipality must come to the fore and punitive fines must be imposed on those who litter. Ways to do that must come from the womb of bureaucracy. What happened to the wet garbage/dry garbage scheme? What happened to the fancy underground garbage bins that were supposed to send an automated SMS to the municipality when full?” a resident said.

Residents of the town now feel disappointed with the much-advertised ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’, which, too, seems to be of no use at present .

“Why not constitute a ‘Garbage Watch Force’ and deploy it at vulnerable areas? But then we have a shortage of staff, and we also have huge unemployment, though we seem to have no shortage of funds for the Smart City!” another resident said. The situation, the residents say, is ironic and hopeless, calling for immediate attention.

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