Garbage woes for people of Tezpur

OUR CORRESPONDENT

TEZPUR: Tezpur, which is considered as a city of beauty with natural infrastructure, has nowadays become a city of garbage due to the frequent strikes by the cleaners or civic body employees under the municipality board.

The city, which has even emerged as the second cleanest towns among the cities of the Northeast zone in the Swachh Survekshan 2020, based on the recent digital survey carried out by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India, in reality projects a different picture.

Tezpur Municipal Board, constituted in 1894 under the provision of Tezpur, which is considered as a city of beauty with natural infrastructure, has nowadays become a city of garbage due to the frequent strikes by the cleaners or civic body employees under the municipality board.he municipal act, covers an area of 7.10 sq km having a council of 19 elected ward commissioners. As per the official record, the Grade II status Tezpur municipality board with a demographical representation of municipal area records 58,559 according to the 2011 census. The slum population inside the municipal area is 6,672. The total households in the municipal area is 13,749. However, the denizens here lament that the Tezpur Municipal Board, which is committed to provide different facilities to the public like water, street light, roads and drainage, sanitation (lifting and cleaning of garbage), has totally failed to do so. Beside this, the Tezpur municipal board has one public burial ground, seven markets, 33 community halls and five ancient ponds which are in a very unhygienic state due to the lack of maintenance by the authority.

Denizens of most of the areas, including Kanaklata Civil Hospital area and Joimati Field road near CRPF camp area, have expressed their total dissatisfaction over the filthy condition in their wards that has almost thrown public life out of gear. Unhygienic atmosphere created by stray pigs and cows and throwing of waste materials on the street have totally destroyed the civic atmosphere in these areas. The frequent agitation by the cleaners or the civic body workers in protest against the non-fulfillment of their demands, including hike in their salary by the authority concerned, has created an awkward situation in the town. Following the problem, waste materials, including solid waste, lie scattered everywhere in the town resulting in an obnoxious odour and threat to health and hygiene.

Other than these, there are some other problems in the town like deplorable road condition, manholes at many places, non-filling of side bumps of the roads after excavation by different agencies for their purpose. On the main road of the town near the public parking, deep potholes created after excavation for cable lines have not been repaired till date, which often create a chaotic situation for the commuters and pedestrians.

Kamada Prasad Choudhury, a socially-aware citizen here, said that the permanent employees under the board also had problems with their duty as there was a conflict regarding engagement of private employees for cleaning the town. "The slogans like 'Clean Tezpur, Green Tezpur' and Prime Minister Modi's Swachh Bharat Abhiyan have no any meaning here," he rued, adding that even educated and affluent people throw their waste materials in front of their own gates, thus compounding the garbage problem in the town.

"Solid waste generated by the nursing homes and private clinics are also responsible for the garbage woes," he added.

Also watch: #NewsMakers: An exclusive conversation with Megh Nidhi Dahal(IAS), DC, Hailakandi