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Cleanliness drive fails to cleanse city

By Lalit K. Jha

The Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, participating in the `Clean City Campaign' in New Delhi.

NEW DELHI SEPT. 27. The much-hyped Clean City Campaign - launched by the Delhi Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, on Tuesday -- seems to have failed to make much of an impact on the cleanliness and sanitary situation in the Capital.

Before the launch, top officials of the Delhi Government and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi - the two major organisers - had claimed that Delhi would become a neat and clean city when the campaign concludes on October 2. Instead, four days after it was launched, heaps of garbage can still be seen lying around the city.

Leave aside the unauthorised colonies, slum clusters and resettlement colonies, the MCD garbage-lifting trucks have not visited scores of regularised colonies to clean up dhalaos and dustbins even once since Tuesday. The civic body does not have enough trucks to cover all the areas on a daily basis.

There has been no improvement in the cleanliness of railway stations and rail tracks. Before the drive, the Delhi Chief Secretary, Shailja Chandra, had promised that railway stations and rail tracks would look much cleaner after the drive. The same is the case with bus terminals and bus stands. Even though the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation is not part of the drive, the Metro stations and DMRC sites stand apart.

On the other hand, thousands of posters and banners, besides hoardings and wall writings, have reappeared in the past one week mainly because of the forthcoming Delhi Assembly elections and the ongoing festival season. No effort has been made by the authorities concerned to remove them. "Who will act against these posters and banners? These are mostly of politicians or by the political parties,'' said a MCD official.

Also, with the start of festive season, traders and businessmen in nexus with the local police and politicians have encroached upon streets and roads. Thousands of new roadside vendors have suddenly emerged in the past one-week. "It is our business-time which comes once a year,'' said the owner of a garment shop in R. K. Puram, South Delhi.

The authorities and Councillors concede that the drive has been reduced to a routine bureaucratic exercise. "It is basically a publicity campaign which includes a public run involving children, publicity campaign through media, posters and banners,'' said an official. The massive effort required by officials and various government agencies and active co-operation from elected representatives and resident welfare associations and market associations is missing.

Even the markets, which claim that they are part of the campaign, have not shown any sign of improvement in terms of cleanliness.

Corporate bodies, fast food chains and the petroleum companies have only put up posters and banners at some places as part of its much proclaimed `social responsibility' to make Delhi a clean city. A visit to various colonies would reveal that the Delhi Cantonment Board - which refused to be part of the campaign - continues to be one of the cleanest areas of the city.

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