Swachcha Bharat Abhiyan ?

              A year ago "Swachcha Bharat Abhiyan" was a hot topic. Celebrities were holding brooms and we saw their pictures in Newspapers. Do not know how much they cleaned the road. We do not expect cleaning roads by them but sure they tried to convey a message to the public that they should take active part in cleaning their locality. Govt did its own favorite work - tax public extra. A "Swachchata cess" was imposed on tax paying public. Nowadays we do not find it discussed anywhere. And not much has changed. 

              The mindset of public is still the same as it was then. May the person be from less income group or from big businessman community, his habits are still the same as it was a year ago. If he liked cleanliness then he still likes it. If he did not care about it then, he still does not care. 

                Though the municipal corporation had provided small colorful dustbins in a good number and small vendors made use of them but the main problem is behavior of some people that simply is offending. Even if govt gives good and clean roads these people do not care. One of the very bad habits in Bihar and Jharkhand is spitting. Use of Paan, Khaini (Raw tobacco with lime) and gutkha is abundant here and it results in spitting. Some of the people who care, they spit at places meant for it while some others just seek for corners and roadsides. One can see such disgusting corners on stair halls of public buildings. In despair authorities at some buildings have placed ceramic tiles with images of different gods to prevent the spitting but perhaps it is not the foolproof way. So at many buildings they have put flower pots with sand to spit in it. But what is the most annoying that a few number of people are habitual dirt spreader. A few days ago when I was returning from morning walk from the dam side park in front of CMPDI, I saw three friends talking in the vegetable market there. They were of the age group of 35-40 years. This vegetable market has been made pucca and wide by the govt because it is also an approach road to the Dam side park which is under renovation. It is also cleaned regularly. What I saw that one of them munching 'Paan' spit in the open on the middle of the road in front of whole public in market while he could have turned hid head and spit in the road side drain. Nobody dared to say a word to him and in fact nobody cared. That person had no guilty feeling. Everything remained as if nothing had happened. These three friends were grownups and seemed like small business man.  

                   Even some persons in high income group do not care much about the locality just outside their boundary wall. An example is in my neighborhood. This big businessman has his house at Kanke Road beside a temple. It is a posh area.The plot is in acres and beautiful garden has been maintained like in movies. But it is not visible to public on road because of seven feet high boundary wall. The boundary wall is un-plastered and not painted. The rain water from many seasons have made the color of surface bad. Even the iron gate is not colored and it remains closed all the time. Clearly it has been done not to attract public attention. OK, it is good for him to think about his safety but what I am talking about is that he does not care to maintain the cleanliness just outside his boundary wall. Three years ago the Kanke Road was widened with divider and lights and it is regularly cleaned by the agency, but the servant of this businessman daily brings the dogs out of the gate makes them to poo on the clean road just in front of his boundary wall. The temple is only 50 feet away from this dirty made spot but even the priest has no objection because the businessman is one of the patrons. 
                   So to make the "Swachh Bharat Abhyan" successful only creating the hype will not help but penalizing such bad mannered persons is also necessary irrespective of their status. But the sad part is that in our society status matters a lot.

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