The Times of India              03.10.2013 

Hospitals, grounds cleaned on first day of Nagpur Municipal Corporation campaign

NAGPUR: On the first day of its My City, Clean City campaign, the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) set itself a tough challenge: cleaning the premises of stinky, ill-maintained, weed-infested government hospitals and open grounds. By Wednesday evening, the result was impressive: sanitary workers had cleaned and lifted 67 tonnes of garbage, roughly the same amount that is collected from one NMC zone in a day.

The drive, whose opening coincided with Gandhi Jayanti, was undertaken in 53 locations across the city. Under the campaign, the plan is to cover such places where cleaning is not done on day-to-day basis.

Mayor Anil Sole launched the campaign by garlanding Gandhi's portrait on the premises of Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH). The campaign was launched in all zones and covered the premises of GMCH, Indira Gandhi Government Medical College and Hospital, Gandhibagh garden, Daga hospital, Ayurvedic hospital in Sakkardara, Mure Memorial hospital etc.

NMC press into service its equipment and sanitary workers to clean the premises of GMCH and IGGMC. Tall grass and shrubs are common on the premises of these two hospitals. NMC has planned to clean up the entire area. The extent of the work that awaits sanitary workers can be gauged from the fact that it took them about four hours just to clean a small patch, no bigger than half a football field, near the IGGMC entrance.

In Dhantoli zone, assistant commissioner Mahesh Moroney along with a team of activists from NGO Green Vigil cleaned the premises of Mure Memorial hospital and Maharajbagh road. Zone chairperson Lata Yadav and founder of Green Vigil Kaustav Chatterjee also participated in the drive. Interestingly, a shop owner came forward and lifted the garbage thrown on the road when saw Green Vigil's volunteers Surbhi Jaiswal and Tanmay Srivastav cleaning the stretch.

The trader's initiative mirrored the mayor's thoughts on the drive. "NMC's motive behind the campaign is to encourage citizens to take responsibility of their premises and city. NMC is engaged in cleaning the city every day. But a lot depends on the citizens as well. Maintaining cleanliness and avoiding littering will take the city's status to new heights," Sole said.

Interestingly, the heads of various departments at the NMC started to clean the premises of their offices from Wednesday. Work to clean the premises of water works department situated at Dharampeth started. Despite the fact that Wednesday was a public holiday, most of the officials and staffers were present and participated in the drive.

On Thursday, the campaign will begin at 9am in all ten zones. The cleanliness drive will be conducted in schools, colleges and few public places.

Earlier, at GMCH, Sole along with deputy mayor Jaitunbi Ashfaque Ansari, municipal commissioner Shyam Wardhane and other officials and office-bearers inspected the hospital premises. Later, Sole, Wardhane and others launched the campaign on IGGMC premises. MLAs Sudhakar Deshmukh and Vikas Kumbhare, leader of ruling party Pravin Datke, Ramesh Shingare, Sudhakar Kohle, superintending engineer Prakash Urade, deputy director of health Dr Milind Ganvir, medical officer (sanitation) Dr Ashok Urkude and others were present and interacted with officials and also students from GMCH and IGGMC. At GMCH, dean Dr Rajaram Powar and other officials thanked the NMC for the drive.

DRIVE SCHEDULE

Oct 3: Schools and colleges' premises

Oct 4: NMC and NIT managed gardens

Oct 5: Open grounds under NMC and NIT

Oct 6: Main, internal roads and also streets

Oct 7: Outskirts areas, Hudkeshwar-Narsale

Oct 8: All slum areas and adjacent open spaces

Oct 9: Railway station, bus stand, govt offices

Oct 10: Open plots, any places if left over