The State capital is reeling insanitary conditions. Heaps of garbage lying scattered at several places emanating acrid stench in the neighbourhood are looking like festering scars on the city. Important areas like Astley Hall, Parade Ground, Tibetan Market and Clock Tower are at the receiving end of the authority concerned sleeping over the grim problem of accumulated waste spreading stench and imperiling the health of denizens of Dehradun, something that makes a mockery of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-envisaged Clean India Campaign.
Venting anger over things remaining in a mess for days on end, the residents say the city remaining shorn of proper waste management, the garbage keeps piling up to their woe.
However, there are some who are reluctant to sweep the blame exclusively to the courtyard of the civic body and the like. " We local people, are equally responsible as far as the accumulation of the waste is concerned. If each of us takes a little pain to keep things clean around us the picture would change for the better. We should refrain from throwing our domestic garbage hither and thither without the least concern for the collective weal. Putting the blame squarely on the civic body would not help solve the problem," says Shreya, a student residing near Astley Hall.
An elderly Pratap Kumar, resident of Nehru Colony, says, " Although the sweepers clean places they tend to leave all the waste dumped at one place without rightly disposing them of in the dustbins. The overflowing drain near the Clock Tower smells foul. It is amazing that the sorry state of things is continuing with the department of the civic body, entrusted to address these things, looking the other way while the waste pileup," he said. Quizzed over why things are so, the mayor, Vinod Chamoli says, " The main problem is due to the Sunday markets. The places turn so full of the garbage that it takes a few days to clean them. We have appointed sweepers who timely clean the areas. However, the locals must cooperate to keep the areas clean. If they develop the habit of disposing of their domestic left-over in the right manner it would immensely help us in our mission of keeping the city clean," he said.
lauding the PM-initiated nation-wide cleanliness campaign, he said the main objective of the mission is to inspire the people to contribute their mites individually and collectively to make the country clean of garbage. "Some officials sweeping on some particular days is not the solution, but all making it a mission and doing their parts daily is what it stands for," he said.