Voting for municipal elections is over. All candidates have promised a neat and clean ward. Elsewhere sadhus are staging demonstrations for making Ganges clean. Then there is a news that the municipal corporation in Lucknow has neither vacant land(fills) nor resources for disposal / processing of garbage. Most other municipalities including those in towns along the Ganges may be no different, and the industries releasing untreated effluents will readily advance the same argument.
The news item seems to suggest that it is not a matter of attitude towards cleanliness or the work ethics in our municipal corporations that is responsible for all the squalor around us but sheer lack of physical and financial resources. Never mind if the lack of resources is a direct fallout of the work culture. However, lack of resources being the case, the sadhus should not be staging demonstrations but either making generous donations to the corporations / polluters from their overflowing coffers, or else directly investing in sewage / effluent treatment plants along Ganges. We do hope that they have, at the least, made all the proper arrangements at their ashrams along the rivers and do not add to the woes of our rivers.
Coming back to the wards of the city where we have lots of greenery, one category of garbage is dry leaves and plant trimmings. The garbage collection agencies refuse to pick them up. Their argument is that the corporation does not allow them to dump these at the identified locations. Unstated reasons are their unwillingness and lack of equipments too. The agencies are, of course, private ones engaged directly by the residents. Yes, the corporation does NOT collect garbage. There is a long list of things that the corporation does not do. Maintenance of gardens is another item on the list.
It should be possible to use the undeveloped parks for composting the bio-waste locally. Somehow even that is not happening. What is happening is described below.
The disposal of this class of waste - leaves, twigs and trimmings - is done by dumping it on the roadside, allowing it to dry up and then setting it on fire. Loose plastic bags, scraps of paper, gutka pouches littering the streets are also put in the same dump.
The favorite locations for this yagna-like fire ritual are the four corners of the parks developed by local residents themselves and used for morning walk, yoga etc. The time for doing so is also carefully made to synchronize with the slot in the morning when the occupancy in the park is maximum.
Our sadhus may have to perform a huge yagna with corporation chiefs as Yajmaans for putting an end to this obnoxious daily fire ritual. At the end the sadhus should, instead of demanding Dakshina, make donations to the chiefs to enable them to process all the garbage in a civilized manner.
The news item seems to suggest that it is not a matter of attitude towards cleanliness or the work ethics in our municipal corporations that is responsible for all the squalor around us but sheer lack of physical and financial resources. Never mind if the lack of resources is a direct fallout of the work culture. However, lack of resources being the case, the sadhus should not be staging demonstrations but either making generous donations to the corporations / polluters from their overflowing coffers, or else directly investing in sewage / effluent treatment plants along Ganges. We do hope that they have, at the least, made all the proper arrangements at their ashrams along the rivers and do not add to the woes of our rivers.
Coming back to the wards of the city where we have lots of greenery, one category of garbage is dry leaves and plant trimmings. The garbage collection agencies refuse to pick them up. Their argument is that the corporation does not allow them to dump these at the identified locations. Unstated reasons are their unwillingness and lack of equipments too. The agencies are, of course, private ones engaged directly by the residents. Yes, the corporation does NOT collect garbage. There is a long list of things that the corporation does not do. Maintenance of gardens is another item on the list.
It should be possible to use the undeveloped parks for composting the bio-waste locally. Somehow even that is not happening. What is happening is described below.
The disposal of this class of waste - leaves, twigs and trimmings - is done by dumping it on the roadside, allowing it to dry up and then setting it on fire. Loose plastic bags, scraps of paper, gutka pouches littering the streets are also put in the same dump.
The favorite locations for this yagna-like fire ritual are the four corners of the parks developed by local residents themselves and used for morning walk, yoga etc. The time for doing so is also carefully made to synchronize with the slot in the morning when the occupancy in the park is maximum.
Our sadhus may have to perform a huge yagna with corporation chiefs as Yajmaans for putting an end to this obnoxious daily fire ritual. At the end the sadhus should, instead of demanding Dakshina, make donations to the chiefs to enable them to process all the garbage in a civilized manner.
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