The level of civic sanitation in Pauri town has continued to deteriorate with the municipal waste being dumped haphazardly in the open. More than a year after the formation of the new municipal board in Pauri, its chairman Yashpal Benam has failed to ensure scientific disposal of garbage as required by the law. On assuming office of the municipal board chairman, Benam had assured the people that he would ensure solution to the garbage problem in town within a month.
Of late, the municipal authorities have been dumping the municipal waste generated in Pauri town on the mountain slope at lower Chopra. This was objected to by those living in the area with the locals blocking traffic on the Pauri-Srinagar highway on Saturday to protest against the improper dumping of garbage by the municipality. The locals had also complained to the district magistrate earlier about the garbage problem but no action has been taken by the district administration to prevent improper dumping of garbage.
The residents of Pauri pointed out that Pauri municipal board was violating the directions of the National Green Tribunal regarding the disposal of garbage in the area. The municipal board has not yet found any place for proper garbage disposal due to which garbage piles of garbage in the open in different localities of the town have become a common sight while also posing a threat to public health.
The people of Pauri town are annoyed at the littering and lack of garbage disposal in different parts of town with the stench of garbage making it difficult to pass through various roads of the town without covering ones nose.
The garbage is being dumped out in the open near lakshminarayan temple, Ramlila Ground, the bus station in the heart of the town and many other places. The municipal staff recently cleared the garbage dumped in the open near the bus station after a gap of 11 days only because Cabinet ministers and politicians are expected to arrive in Pauri to attend the oath taking ceremony of District Panchayat president Deepti Rawat (wife of Cabinet Minister Harak Singh Rawat) and others on Monday.
Former Pauri municipal board chairman and ex vice-chairman of Uttarakhand Sports Council, Jaspal Singh Negi said that the urban local body was responsible for garbage disposal and maintenance of civic sanitation but the Pauri municipality has failed to fulfil its responsibility. He questioned what the board had done in this regard since being formed about 14 months ago.