Shillong, Dec. 11: The residents of different localities in one of India's dirtiest cities, Shillong, are indulging in cleaning drives in the city ahead of Christmas and New Year.

The objective of these daylong affairs (each area takes up the drive on a single day) are to make each and every locality clean ahead of the festive season.

Every locality holds an annual dorbar (meeting) where the residents discuss the matter and fix a date for the drive, as well a fee that each household have to contribute to. The fee collected from the households is meant for buying lime for white washing walls and other requirements.

Tomorrow, a few localities in the city like Lumdiengjri and Pohkseh will conduct the cleaning drive, while other localities will conduct a similar drive in their respective areas next week.

However, the drive drew flak with many terming it "not that meaningful" because of the fact that drains, footpaths and roads in most of the localities remained dirt-free only for a few days.

Many agree that it has become just a routine affair every year during this merry season, as it did not match with the cleanliness habit that the people of Mawlynnong (cleanest village in Asia) has been keeping.

While the drive would remove filth from the localities, the highly polluted rivers of Shillong - Umkhrah and Umshyrpi - continue to remain dirty with endless dumping of garbage.

"The cleaning drive should have an impact on society and change the mind of the people. It is an irony that throwing of plastic bags and littering resumed in the localities on the same day after the cleaning drive," veteran journalist Sumar Sing Sawian said.

Sawian felt that the tag that Shillong has earned as one among the dirtiest cities in India should be a wake-up call to change people's mindset.

"To maintain cleanliness is the duty and responsibility of each and every one of us. Through co-operation, each one of us can contribute towards achieving the goal of making our city clean. If we all have this attitude and come together for this good cause, all localities need not conduct an annual cleaning drive like this," headman of Mawlai Mawdatbaki, B.R. Kharmujai, said.

Kharmujai, a septuagenarian, who is serving as headman for many decades now, called upon the people to follow the cleanliness model of Mawlynnong. "If we all have a will, Shillong city can produce many Mawlynnongs," Kharmujai said.

The first-ever survey on the cleanliness of cities from the perspective of tourists, commissioned by the Union tourism ministry, has found Shillong among the top five "dirtiest" cities in India.