Wednesday, 15 December 2021 | PNS | Dehradun
Getting Dehradun into the top 50 cleanest cities in Swachh Survekshan 2022 (SS22) remained the main focus of the year’s last board meeting of the Municipal Corporation of Dehradun (MCD) on Tuesday. Some councillors also presented their issues regarding sanitation issues in their wards. The mayor Sunil Uniyal ‘Gama’ also felicitated some dignitaries and sanitation workers for their contribution during SS21 this year before the meeting. ‘Gama’ started the meeting by saying that since the corporation has managed to achieve the position in the top 100 cleanest cities from 384th position in 2019 to 82nd position in 2021, it also needs to address the points where the city needs to focus more to get into top 50. The senior municipal health officer Dr RK Singh talked about the points on which the corporation needs to focus to increase the ratings under different categories of SS22.
He said that the corporation has received only one rating in Garbage Free city (GFC) category this year and to convert it to at least three-star rating, the MCD and the councillors need to work towards promoting the domestic composting practice and adopt three R’s (reduce, reuse and recycle) of waste management for waste reduction. He said that Covid appropriate behaviour in the city is also one of the criteria of SS22 and councillors must ensure it is being followed in their respective wards. Some councillors of the rural areas said to the mayor that MCD is not focusing on sanitation facilities in the rural wards and services like door to door garbage collection remains irregular that causes garbage accumulation on roads. The councillor of ISBT ward, Manchand said that some labourers involved in the construction work of MDDA in his ward defecate in an open area nearby and has encroached on that place.
Another councillor Ramesh Kumar said that dairy operators and meat shop owners generate loads of waste on daily basis but fail to dispose of it properly. The councillors asked the mayor to take action on the matter to improve the sanitation conditions of the city. The mayor said that since all the said issues do not come under the corporation alone, he will write to the district magistrate and the police for cooperation. Some councillors also expressed their disagreement to the figures represented by the EESL company contracted by the corporation for lights repairing and installation works across the city. They said that the company has not installed or repaired that many lights as it claims to do so across the city. The mayor directed the company to install all the lights soon and consider the complaints of the councillors.
