Will administration's message on cleanliness reach the citizens?

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

SILCHAR: Deputy Commissioner of Cachar, Keerthi Jalli was seen with MLA Dipayan Paul appealing to the citizens of Silchar not to dispose of wastes and garbage on the road but to keep them in the allotted buckets by DDMA to households for their proper disposal and regeneration or recycled by- products. She hit the main streets with MLA with a bucket in hand to reach the message that the town has to be kept neat and clean to make it 'swachh, sundar o nirmal' (neat, clean and green)' to become one of the cleanest one.

The Deputy Commissioner held out a warning to businessmen and traders if they throw out rubbish and wastes of their shops on the road, their trade licence will be cancelled. How far this message of the Deputy Commissioner has been effective is difficult to say. Wastes and garbage continue to pile up on roads and streets. The nearest ward 6 of the administration known as Ukilpatty is a shining example. Ukilpatty road is not only a dumping ground of wastes from houses but also business shops, besides open urination by pedestrians, giving out an obnoxious smell.

Senior citizens who have been witness to the actions initiated by earlier Deputy Commissioners suggest concrete proactive approach. One of the greatest menaces to cleanliness is indiscriminate use and disposal of plastics that block drainage systems, adding to the unhygienic condition around. They recall Sunannda Sen Gupta, Deputy Commissioner during 2003-2005, who formed a 3 member magisterial team reinforced by security forces with mobile public address system, cautioning both the common people and shops to desist from using plastics. It worked and within a fortnight the use of plastics stopped.

They also recall S Viswanathan and S Lakhsmanan, Deputy Commissioners of Cachar from 2015 to 2017, who formed a 100 member squad drawn from the DDMA, general administrative units led by top officials who were on the roads of this town day and night, collecting garbage and advising people in general and shop owners how to dispose of garbage and even burn them, particularly at night, in a collective way. This also worked well. A change was seen for better. After that it was back to square one. Bithika Dev, municipal board chairperson of the 90's, rightly observed, "Citizens of Silchar have no civic sense."

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