PIONEER EDGE NEWS SERVICE/ Haridwar
Prompted by The Pioneer’s October 22 report exposing severe pollution in the Ganga, the Haridwar Municipal Corporation swung into action with a major cleanup operation. The drive cleared eight tons of waste that had choked the Mayapur head regulator near Dam Kothi. Officials confirmed that the collected garbage has been moved to the municipal plant for systematic disposal.
The trash heap seen at the Mayapur head regulator during the Ganga Bandhi has shattered official claims of a cleaner Ganga, bringing the troubling ground reality to the forefront as highlighted by The Pioneer.
Soon after, the Municipal Corporation team, under the direction of municipal commissioner Nandan Kumar, launched a massive cleanup campaign.
It is learnt from the civic body sources that Kumar directed the officials concerned to ensure timely disposal of the scattered garbage through a special cleanliness campaign in the Ganga area, ghats, regulators and surrounding places. He also instructed them to regularly monitor the cleaning work. About 60 sanitation workers of the Municipal Corporation, including the chief sanitation inspector and sanitation inspector, participated in the campaign.
While observers said that the prompt removal of the garbage mound had relieved them, they hastened to add that a one-off garbage cleaning drive is not enough. “Regular monitoring is also essential to determine where the garbage is coming from, what arrangements are in place to stop it and also to ensure that such a situation does not recur in the future,” an observer noted.
