Mluru Flunked in ‘Swachh Survekshan ’19’ due to Citizens Ignorance towards ‘Swachh Mluru’?

Mluru Flunked in ‘Swachh Survekshan ’19’ due to Citizens Ignorance towards ‘Swachh Mluru’?

Mangaluru City Flunked in ‘Swachh Survekshan ’19’ due to Citizens Ignorance towards ‘Swachh Mangaluru’ Abhiyan?

Mangaluru: A survey by the Union Ministry of Urban Development in 2016 had rated Mangaluru as the third cleanest among 476 cities across the country; and in 2018 Mangaluru which was rated as the “Best City in Solid Waste Management in 3-10 lakh population”, and in 2017 it scaled up from 63rd rank to 52nd rank, but sadly this year it has flunked very miserably by being ranked in the 165th place. Really, not good news for the Mangaluru City Corporation Mayor Bhasker K on his last in the office as Mayor, and also not at all good news for Ramakrishna Mission who have taken up the Swachh Mangaluru Abhiyan project since last five years, and also to other organizations who had taken up the cleanliness programmes.

Four years ago, Mangaluru City corporation switched from nine contractors who were handling the City’s disposal of solid waste from 60 wards in the city, to a single contractor based in Mumbai, named Antony Waste Handling Pvt Ltd who took charge of garbage disposal in Mangaluru starting December 2014, including door-to-door garbage collection, transportation of waste, street sweeping, divider cleaning, vegetation cutting/trimming and various other sanitation work. The main intention of MCC was to prevent residents and others disposing garbage on streets- but sadly if you go around the City now, you’ll notice piles of garbage at many spots. And the photos in this report were taken this morning at only a few spots in the City, and it’s not only today, similar kind of garbage is seen everyday.

By awarding this job to the single Mumbai contractor the MCC lessened the burden by dealing with nearly nine contractors who were hauling the city’s waste. Even though MCC was spending nearly Rs 11 crore annually paying the nine contractors, but agreed to pay Rs 17.62 crore annually, to the Mumbai based company since they use all hydraulic vehicles to collect door-to-door waste collection, then also transport the waste to the compost plant in Pachchanady, and also all their vehicles have GPS equipment, and they will also clean streets and three beaches.

For such a big city, Mangaluru needs more pourakarmikas to do the cleaning job. it is learnt that the City needs at least 500 sweepers, but there are not even 80-100 at present. Ganesh Karnik who is involved in the Ramakrishna Mission Swachh Mangaluru Abhiyan project speaking to Team Mangalorean said, “Our volunteers are doing a great job every Sunday in cleaning various parts of the City. It is the duty of every citizen of Mangaluru to appreciate what these volunteers are doing. Citizens should use their common sense about cleanliness, which is lacking at the moment. Probably what is important is drilling down the sense of belonging among the residents and creating awareness on cleanliness, which would take time. Awake and Arise, it’s time to keep our City clean”.

But even after paying such a huge sum of money to AWHCPL to do the door-to-door collection of garbage, its sad to note that garbage is still littered on the streets by citizens of Mangaluru. Why is no one taking action against this? While volunteers of Ramakrishna Mission, and other organizations are doing community service by trying to keep Mangaluru, it is indeed ignorant on the part of the citizens to litter waste wherever they feel like. Everyone learns by their past mistakes, but SURELY NOT in the case of Mangaluru City Corporation. Even after they had experienced such garbage littering issues in the past, still they are reluctant in rectifying the problems. Even though Mangaluru is proud enough to say it is a “Smart City”, but is surely lacking of “Smart Officials” at the helm of it.

Despite being highest literacy this city seems to have lack of civic sense. Cleanliness reflects the mind. It’s not only the common people that litter, even educated and rich people are the worst in littering. For example, every night rich and educated people come in high-end cars to get their favorite Natural Ice Cream, located near Kadri Pumpwell on Kadri Road, and once they leave the place, the entire area is filled with garbage, either of liquor bottles, snacks wrappers, Pizza boxes etc- and how do I know it? Because I live close by and I have written quite a bunch of articles about the ignorance of these rich people who litter. So how can Mangaluru be Swachh, when we have rich and educated people like these?

And how can Mangaluru reach the top level in the National Cleanliness survey, when Mangaloreans are showing ignorance and abusing the Swachh Mangaluru campaign. Featured as one of the cleanest city in India- our educational coastal town needs to improve. Sadly, to note that not even the third cleanest city in the country, and second cleanest city in Karnataka-Namma Kudla could save itself from the public litter. Stray animals and crows scavenged on leftovers. It’s time that authorities start slapping fines if cleanliness is not maintained or if they catch someone littering in the public. What are our officials waiting for? Take action immediately, and see that Mangaluru improves in its cleanliness, and not just boast of the clean city status, this city is christened with.

Is this what “Clean India” campaign that we are looking forward to, that too being educated citizens of India, where Mangaluru is considered as the Education hub. Can’t we learn from our past mistakes? If we think that there are people to clean our mess, then why even practice or observe “Swachh Bharath” campaign. In conclusion, if our citizens can’t keep their surroundings clean, and ignore “Swachh Bharath Abhiyan”, how can we ever think of having a Clean India or Clean Mangaluru. We need to enforce strict laws and punish those who litter in the public, then only we can look forward for “Swachh Bharath” and for that matter “Swachh Mangaluru”!-If not PM Modi’s “Swachh Bharath” will NOT be his dream come true on 2 October 2019?

Let’s work together and see that we keep our surroundings clean. Remember we should learn from our mistakes to change, and not continuing our old habits. And let’s remember to make “Namma Mangaluru, Swachha Mangaluru!”. Let’s look forward for better ranking of Mangaluru City in Cleanliness in 2020!

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