“Cleanliness is next to Godliness — John Wesley 1791”
My late father used to say, “If everyone cleans their own courtyard, the whole village will get cleaned.”
I have observed that a great majority of common folks also seem to believe in this wise dictum-but only partially. They do clean their own courtyards but dump their refuse in front of their neighbour’s courtyard-and if they are careful to avoid conflict, in a public place! There is a pathetic display of this mentality around us, and as helpless citizens, we tolerate it, overlook it, and walk through its ugly manifestation on the ground-day in and day out!
Having lived in two of the posh localities of Delhi for the last five years (on rent, of course!), I have seen this firsthand. When I go to the market, walk to the sports complex, drive around to meet a friend in another colony across the city, or even just look outside from my balcony, I feel the sanitation system has been overwhelmed. The symptoms are everywhere to see-litter on the roadside, overflowing garbage bins at central collection points, out-of-control foliage, secluded corners being used as toilets, and the lingering stench which follows you for hundreds of metres in every direction!
A feeble attempt is visible to keep the main roads clean by a few skeleton staff and inefficient and infrequent removal of the collected garbage (which leaves more stench than it removes) and umbrella protection enjoyed by the hawkers and food stalls to leave used or unusable items like wrappers, plates, plastic cups/glasses, soft drink cans/bottles, leftover food waste, etc., around for someone else to pick up.
Worse than such eyesores are the drains-covered or not-which make walking around in our concrete jungles the most unpleasant activity despite so much greenery. In fact, mismanagement of that greenery itself is another big problem. Dangerously low-hanging branches on footpaths, uncontrolled growth of plants/weeds blocking views, heaps of fallen leaves and broken branches on road corners and curbs are ubiquitous. We may blame the municipal corporations for neglect of outside thoroughfares and parks, but even the famed residential colonies are no exception to this menace. The RWAs are helpless-or maybe not bothered!
Mention of RWAs brings to mind the owners of these double-digit crore houses. These worthies get out of their swanky cars, get into their million-dollar homes, and forget about the muck outside-on street corners, garbage points across their colonies, and even just outside their gate!
Maybe Delhi is too big, too congested, too overcrowded, too heavily populated, and politically fissiparous. But the moot point is, if Delhi Cantt or Shanti Path area could be kept fairly clean, why not Hauz Khas, Lajpat Nagar, Defence Colony, or even Kalu Sarai for that matter? Back in 1999, my unit got moved to Hyderabad from a field area for a much-awaited peace tenure. We witnessed a refreshing spectacle-first in our living memory: every night from 11 PM till 3 AM the next day, the roads of Hyderabad-Secunderabad twin cities used to be swept clean, and every speck of dirt, every piece of litter used to be collected and removed without fail! Later on, we all have seen the amazing transformation of Indore being adjudged the cleanest city of India for the last eight years straight-year after year! And I am not even talking of the transformation of Singapore from a third-world rural city to the “Cleanest City in the World” under the legendary Lee Kuan Yew! We need to identify where we are lagging behind, in Delhi and elsewhere (and everywhere?) in the country, and to put in place time-tested systems to address this malaise. The systems are broken and need to be fixed as of yesterday for the sake of our health, hygiene, and good living, if not for aesthetics alone!
Firstly, and very obviously, there has to be additional allocation of manpower, machines, and vehicles to clear, collect, and haul away all the garbage and waste generated in the city on a daily basis. The supervisory staff should be out on the streets on patrol in three shifts to ensure this. Littering and spitting have to be effectively checked, and heavy fines imposed on the spot and recovered online from the offenders. Stiff penalties on defaulting shops, food joints, and vendors not following the hygiene and sanitation standards should be the norm rather than the exception. This whole campaign has to be supported by efficient and city-wide CCTV coverage managed by a number of control and reporting centres-a city does not become ‘Smart’ otherwise!
I am certain that we have some existing laws covering sanitation. However, we may need to further enact enforceable rules about separation of domestic waste into biodegradable, recyclable, and inorganic categories and empower daily door-to-door collection. Thereafter, it must be hauled away from the city for dumping and further processing/management. The system of establishing garbage collection points in/around residential colonies has to be done away with. Overnight storage of foul-smelling waste at common areas should be discontinued at the earliest. Existing structures could be put to some other use, like building public utilities, or removed altogether.
The most important part, though, is ensuring strict monitoring and foolproof control over corrupt practices. The violators need to be dealt with summarily and speedily, with empowered authority to impose and recover fines on the spot. The ex-serviceman community can be roped in to be efficient, honest, diligent, and bold supervisors who could ensure enforcement of the rules ‘to the T’ and even confront and check the mafia, if any, operating to sabotage ‘The Mission’!
I will also recommend a statutory audit by the CAG to pinpoint wastage/misuse of allocated funds during at least the last five years, as well as bring out shortcomings/causes of the poor state of affairs and lay out a precise roadmap for correcting past mistakes and for future enforcement of modern methods.
A periodic and independent professional assessment could also be factored in henceforth to ensure steady progress and course correction as required. These actions need to be widely publicised and legally enforced for strict compliance. The elected government will have to put in place a suitable legal and administrative structure with an efficient hierarchy and systems to ensure this can be done in a transparent manner over a sustained period of time. Budgetary allocations have to be maintained at more than adequate levels, and committed citizenry will have to be involved to prevent deliberate subversion and sabotage in our ever-changing political landscape.
It is only a matter of determined and honest start and sustained implementation, coupled with monitoring, to ensure our streets and neighbourhoods are immaculately clean, bright, cheerful, and smelling
nice. If Indore can do it, then surely Delhi can also do it, and maybe beat Singapore one day! However, let’s start NOW without waiting till 2047!