Swachh Survekshan: Will Chennai Corporation take the blame for poor performance?
CHENNAI: Chennai’s 235th rank in the Swachh Survekshan Survey raises several pertinent questions about the Greater Chennai Corporation's claims of keeping the city clean.
Lack of sufficient dustbins and staff to collect garbage, ill-maintained toilets and irregular waste collection are among the few reasons that limit the plans of Swachh Bharat. And the Greater Chennai Corporation feels the large population in the city is a “big problem.”
The garbage dumps on the roadside is a common sight as the number of garbage bins are very few considering the population and even market and public places like beaches, food joints, and shopping malls lack sufficient number of dustbins.
V. Raja, a resident of Alandur, says it is becoming increasingly difficult to spot dustbins and even if one finds them with great difficulty, it will be overflowing with waste.
“The waste lies more outside than inside the bins. A heap lies next to every dustbin and this clearly shows that dustbins are not enough. Also, the location of dustbins is also not apt as they are away from crowded places like bus-terminals, markets and commercial areas and exist in barren streets," Raja told Deccan Chronicle.
It is just not about the lack of dustbins but also the staff, which outnumbers the vast population in the city. “In market places like Koyambedu, every shop generates tons of waste daily and with limited staff we can’t manage garbage collection that well,” admits a corporation official.
People often complain of waste not being collected regularly from residential areas, whereas officials claim that attendants on eight-hour shift look after dustbins. However, Corporation officials feel public should also participate in efforts to keep the city clean.
“We have provided separate bins for types of waste, but people do not follow any instructions. The non-segregated waste adds to this, with biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste dumped together. The large floating population in public places adds to the problem,” the official said.
Sanitation standards in the city are also a significant factor in maintaining the cleanliness of the city. Installing bio-toilets for better sanitation in the city have turned futile due to poor maintenance. The number of bio-toilets is not sufficient to provide for public utility for such large population of the city, residents feel.
An allocation of Rs 2,000 crore was made for infrastructure development in the city, out of which, nearly 60 crore was utilized to build bio-toilets at 350 locations across city. Namma Toilet, Saraplast and Wockhardt undertook the contract for building them.
