BJP State Spokesperson Prof. Virender Gupta expressed his great concern on the pace of ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’ in Jammu and Kashmir state. He said that the State authorities, including concerned Ministers, development authorities, Municipal Corporations and the Municipalities have not taken the mission of keeping environment clean seriously and as such there is no concentrated effort in implementing the programme of ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’. The authorities and the volunteers who have taken up the cause have failed to awaken the general masses about the programme, the issues in valued in the implementation of the programme. He said that no sustained efforts and drive have been so far put in the implementation of the programme.
He said that dumps of wastage material of the houses etc. can be seen throughout the cities and villages. People can be observed easing out in public because of lack of common facilities provided. There is dearth of public utility places in the city and where they are available these are filthy and dirty and one finds difficult to use them.
Prof. Virender said that the authorities, in particular office of Divisional Commissioner, that of DC and the respective local bodies has failed to change the behaviour of the citizens and could not inculcate the habits to observe civil hygienic rules and regulations. There is need to involve educational institutions, NGOs and other social and government organizations in making the people aware of civil hygiene. The Jammu Municipal Corporation’s thrust is only for keeping main roads of the cities whereas the lanes remain unattended. One can find garbage scattered here and there. Even in roads the garbage collector is kept uncovered almost in the middle of the road as a result the garbage spread on its surrounding, thus the area looks very filthy, dirty giving un-tolerable foul smell.
He expressed his shock that because of the indifferent attitude of the concerned authorities and public in general, Jammu city slipped to rank 251 cleanliness and declared as one of the dirties place. He said that Jammu is one of the tourist destination, it is city of temples and as even considered as a holy place, therefore, it is responsibility of every one living in the city and those who are at the helm of affairs to make it as one of the model cities of the country and the responsibility of it also lies on the shoulders of MLCs of the city and others MLA belonging to Jammu province to make all possible efforts in this venture.
