Towards a clean city

The initiative to connect people with the concerned agency – Srinagar Municipal Corporation – to help make the city clean is a good initiative. But looking at the enormity of the task - dozens of garbage sites in the city, the massive growth of stray dogs because of the open garbage sites – it looks like too little too late. For last many years, the open disposal of garbage produced at the level of household was allowed.

It resulted in a mindset that it is a normal thing to throw garbage out on the roads. It should have been stopped right at the beginning, but the authorities turned their gaze away. It is the result of a lax attitude from the government and an equally non civic attitude from the people that the open garbage sites spread from one end of the city to another. We are now facing the consequences of this. Our streets and main roads dotted with such filthy sites that betrays a total lack of sense of sanity on part of both – government and people.

It is because of this we are also faced with the problem of stray dogs. We have lost many lives to this menace and it is a source of consistent scare for the pedestrians. If the Municipal authorities have taken up the challenge they need to unleash a massive effort so that all the open garbage dumping sites are cleaned up. It would entail a comprehensive plan. The concerned authorities must rope in the community for this.

A two pronged plan that builds public sensitivity around the issue and also puts in place a system of penalties for the violators is needed. The authorities can also incentivise the management of waste at household level. Taking a cue form the promotion of solar panels for generation of electricity, the government can contemplate of heavily subsidising the compost units that can be used at household level. If the wet waste is managed at the domestic level it would mean almost an end to the crisis that has engulfed us because of the open garbage dumping sites. Afterwards if any one is seen throwing the waste out in the open, a stringent penalty can be imposed.