The Hindu 09.11.2010
Bidar losing its shiny tag
Rishikesh Bahadur Desai
| Last year, it was voted as the 22nd cleanest city in India |
Bidar: Looks like Bidar is losing its distinction of being one of the cleanest cities in the country.
Last year, the Union Urban Development Ministry recognised Bidar as the 22nd cleanest city in India. This feat was achieved with people’s participation, innovative ideas and a responsive administration. The biggest contributing factor, however, was involvement of self-help groups in door-to-door garbage collection and cleaning of drains.
But the City Municipal Council has now cancelled tenders given to SHGs and decided to give them to private contractors instead. This happened after some CMC members complained about the SHGs’ poor performance. “The CMC tells us they will employ us to collect garbage while the maintenance of drains will be handed over to a private company. However, this has not happened yet,” said Sharanamma Dhodiba, member of the Sri Gurunath SHG. All members of this SHG have been out of job for over a month now.
Also, the State Government has not filled the post of the environmental engineer in the CMC, which has been vacant for nearly six months. The hi-tech machinery bought by the CMC for cleaning drains and roads and trash compacting were not used as often as necessary as they had no dedicated maintenance staff. “Government has not sent us any staff,” a senior CMC officer said. The CMC dumped garbage in an open space near Sultanpur village. This was stopped after residents of the village protested, which disturbed the garbage collection for nearly two weeks. The CMC promised the villagers to shift the site away from the village and to process garbage in landfills. However, the landfills are yet to be provided.
This has led to a situation where garbage piles are found along the roads, bins remain full for weeks, drains are clogged and sewage overflows on the roads in many areas.
CMC president Sridevi Karanji said, “We are committed to keeping the city clean. We will take action against officials responsible for the delay in garbage clearance.”
