local student activist group, Making a Difference by Being the Difference (MAD) convened a special meeting at Gandhi Park on Monday to review the group's own efforts in the past three years since the launch of the Swachchh Bharat Abhiyan. While reviewing the numerous cleanup drives and awareness activities, wall transformation activities, pack up polythene activities, MAD members also brainstormed on crucial civic issues pertaining to sanitation and waste management.
About two dozen members who had gathered at Gandhi Park first discussed the need for sustainable development in Dehradun and for proper, responsive and proactive civic governance. In this context, a special discussion was undertaken on the decision to expand area under the municipal corporation of Dehradun from its existing size of 60 wards to include an additional 2.5 lakh citizens with many more wards. Members agreed that such a massive expansion at a time when the municipal corporation was unable and incompetent to manage the municipal waste while also failing to set up a recycling facility, was unwarranted and could prove to be a disaster. MAD members noted that various Gram Sabhas were already opposed to this decision as they were managing their cleanliness better than the existing municipal corporation was managing its cleanliness while at the same time the current system also allowed the Gram Sabhas to involve local kabadiwalas for recycling.