Success story: No to VIP duties made Mullanpur Dakha cleanest city

Tribune News Service

Nitin Jain

Mullanpur Dakha

(Ludhiana), January 20

It may sound strange but it made the difference! This sleepy town in Ludhiana district said no to VIP duties by safai karamcharis, which helped it emerge as the cleanest city in the North zone of the country with population between 15,000 and 25,000 and below 1 lakh population category in the state under the Swachh Survekshan Awards 2023 conferred by President Droupadi Murmu on January 11.

When we investigated to know the secret behind the great success, which made Mullanpur Dakha the cleanest city among tens of hundreds in the category, it came to fore that the entire fleet of the safai karamcharis with the civic body were pulled off from VIP duties, which they were doing earlier at the cost of public money, and were deployed on the cleanliness work in the town.

The majority of the total 53 safai karamcharis, who were earlier used to work at houses and offices of political leaders, bureaucrats, police officers and other mighty people in the area, were asked to report back on their basic job and were put on the cleanliness duty of the town.

To ensure optimum utilisation of the available resources, 49 of the total 53 safai karamcharis, who were working temporarily on a contract basis with the Municipal Council (MC), were regularised and given permanent jobs.

Sharing the success story, Dr KNS Kang, the area in-charge of the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), told The Tribune, here on Saturday that they took small initiatives to achieve the big goal.

Dr Kang, who is an eminent educationist and spearheaded the cleanliness drive in the area, said the decision to recall the safai karamcharis illegally working with the bigwigs was hard to take but without budging under pulls and pressures that it involved, the public support coupled with the government’s patronage succeeded in putting back all safai karamcharis on the cleanliness duty of the town.

“We have worked hard in the past two years towards cleaning the city and have taken several steps to bag the coveted cleanest city award,” he claimed.

Divulging the steps taken to achieve the goal, Dr Kang said to address the challenge of inefficient garbage lifting, leading industrialists were roped in to support the cleanliness drive through corporate social responsibility (CSR) funds, which provided two garbage-lifting trucks and helped improve waste management capabilities.

“Earlier, lots of garbage used to be lying scattered here and there in the city and we got 100 dustbins donated for segregating dry and wet waste in separate bins, promoting a cleaner and more sustainable environment,” he said.

The local leader revealed that to ensure accountability and efficiency of the available resources, the duties of the safai karamcharis in 13 wards of Mullanpur Dakha were divided and the names of the karamcharis were printed and pasted at various places in each ward so that they could be contacted by area residents in case of any deficiency in service.

To tackle sewage system challenges, the city borrowed jetting machines for thorough cleaning and clearing of underground sewage pipes. “This concerted effort resulted in the successful clearing of almost all sewage lines over the past few months, significantly enhancing the overall sanitation infrastructure,” he said.

Dr Kang said the employees of the civic body, especially on cleanliness duty, were treated with respect and an environment for the work was created, besides massive participation of local residents and volunteers was initiated to keep the city clean.

“To further boost the ongoing cleanliness drive and keep the cleanest city tag in the future as well, the MC will soon get a new jetting machine, a tractor, four e-rickshaws, 10 hand-driven garbage pickers and a water tanker, besides other requisite men and material for ensuring that each nook and corner of Mullanpur Dakha remains clean and green,” he added.

DC conferred award

DC Surabhi Malik was conferred the award on behalf of the Mullanpur Dakha Municipal Council by Manoj Joshi, Secretary, Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, in the presence of the President Droupadi Murmu.

The award was presented at a special ceremony under the Swachh Bharat Mission of the Union Government to honour the best performing cities and towns held at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi on January 11.

Under the Swachh Survekshan 2023, cities/towns were given star rating under the garbage-free city and rankings were also given under the open defecation-free (ODF) status, which included the water plus category as the highest ranking.

Mullanpur Dakha has secured 1-star ranking in garbage-free city certification and water plus certificate in the ODF category, which made it secure the first place among the north zone of the country in cities between 15,000 and 25,000 population and less than 1 lakh population in the state under the Swachh Survekshan Awards 2023.

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