Stinking Srinagar

How do the officials of the concerned departments sleep when more than half the city is stinking 24 hours a day. It looks like a fictional stuff, but anyone who enters the circle of stink, with a radius of some kilometers from the epicentre of fetid – Achan – the air turns into a  thick cordon of bad smell. You cannot drive with your windows down. If you car has no AC, you would prefer to incinerate inside, given the scorching heat these days. But those who live in this fateful zone, or walk through it cannot stuff their nostrils close. What they can do is only this: curse the culpable.

The dumping site at Achen is a severe indictment on how our municipal authorities are managing the waste that is produced in thousands of tons every day. Though it cannot be heaped on the present regime of the Municipal officials, as they have just inherited it, but they cannot be expected to stay silent on this. This stink is now there for many years. But they cannot exonerate themselves if they don’t move beyond the inertia that has developed over these years.

This stink is also wafting close to the faces of those who we call as public representatives. If nothing, this should have been taken up as a top line public agenda, and a genuine pressure should have been built within relevant circles, from Srinagar to Delhi. But no, they preferred to look the other way. The stink may not reach our public representatives, in the ruling party and beyond, for they live in their mansions well beyond the zone of stink, but the blame does. And by not finding the blame at their doorsteps, it only stinks more.

One fails to understand, what is a civic emergency is neglected with such ease. It is beyond belief. Before this stink engulfs the entire city, can someone in the ruling party, or the relvant government department initiate some effective action against this menace. It is not such a difficult task if only there is a genuine willingness.