Dhanbad, Aug. 20: State urban development secretary Arun Kumar Singh today urged the residents of Dhanbad and its civic body to salvage the town's image as the dirtiest Indian city among the 73 surveyed under Swachh Bharat Abhiyan by ensuring sustained cleanliness drives.
Singh was in the coal town to flag off five Swachhata Jagrukta Raths, vehicles that will tour five divisions of Dhanbad to spread awareness about cleanliness.
After the flag-off ceremony, Singh held a meeting with mayor Chandrashekhar Agrawal, ward councillors and officials of Dhanbad Municipal Corporation (DMC) at Circuit House, promising all help, including financial aid, to make the town one of the cleanest cities of the country.
The secretary elaborated that Dhanbad had scored low in the survey for three major issues - open defecation, garbage collection and disposal of solid waste in all 55 wards.
"DMC has prepared a blueprint on how to tackle these major problems. These measures should be carried out like a mission with everyone's help. I am sitting in my office with money to solve any financial problem DMC faces, but the responsibility has to be shared by everyone, including the public, who should pitch in to make cleanliness drives a big success," Singh said.
He was, however, miffed to find only 20 ward councillors out of the total 55 at the meeting and asked DMC chief executive officer Ramesh Gholap to send him a list of the absentees.
Singh also showed his irritation when he came to know that till date, the corporation had not constituted wards committees and ward sub-committees, which, according to him, was a major hindrance in carrying out and monitoring sanitation works, solving water problems and planning development projects.
"It is unfortunate that the committees and sub-committees have not been constituted even though DMC elections took place a long time ago. I also see that of the total target of 70,000 toilets, only 17,000 have been constructed. Around 40,000 applications are pending," he pointed out.
Speaking to The Telegraph after the meeting, mayor Agrawal said that DMC officials had submitted a cleanliness plan for all 55 wards, but the biggest challenge was to stop open defecation.
"The urban development secretary has asked us to take help of BCCL and the railways to carry out the cleanliness job," the mayor added.
Municipal corporation officer Gholap said they informed the secretary the steps they were taking to keep Dhanbad clean. "We told him about installation of 300 dustbins, increase of cleaning staff from 900 to 1,500 per-day basis, cleaning of commercial areas twice daily, new initiatives for disposal of solid waste, construction of toilets et al. The secretary gave us a few directions," Gholap added.
