In mockery of the much-hyped Clean India Campaign, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dream programme, the sprawling Parade Ground in the city is found littered with heaps of garbage. It has been two days since Dussehra and still the ground is left with the trash. Eatables spread all over the surface and the ash mixed with the dust has made the ground a total mess. Visitors who came to see the Dahan left behind empty water bottles and eatables all around the venue, something that speaks of the scant response the campaign has evoked among the people. Ramlal, a truck driver, found at the ground unloading the poles meant for an upcoming exhibition, said the municipality workers come in the evening and clean the ground. “But things are the same as they were just after the Dahan,” he lamented.
Preparation for another exhibition slated in a couple of days , has started and the dirt of the previous event are still there.
“A large number of volunteers embarked on a cleanliness drive on October 2 as part of the Clean India Campaign, to let the people emulate them. The civic body being nonchalant prodded the youngsters to clean the ground themselves. But the civic body is yet to awake from somnolence,” rued Reena while passing through the Doon library.
It is the place where most of the exhibitions and events of the city are held. “But there are not enough dustbins here,” said Vicky, another resident of the city, adding that the present sorry state of the principal ground of the city must leave a bad impression on the tourists with many of them frequenting it.
Echoing the same view, some college students, found strolling around the ground, said the civic body’s role and that of the visitors reveal the apathy of the people towards the concept of cleanliness once personified by Mahatma Gandhi.