Abrar Nabi
Srinagar, Sep 14 : Jammu and Kashmir Commissioner & Secretary, Housing and Urban Development Department (H&UDD), Mandeep Kaur (IAS) has said cleanliness drives cannot succeed through government spending alone, urging citizens to adopt home composting and warning that “nothing is going to change” unless people take ownership of the mission.
Speaking to news agency Kashmir News Service (KNS) during her visit to Srinagar, Mandeep Kaur said the administration has launched a cleanliness internship programme in schools to create “clean warriors” who will push their parents towards sustainable waste practices at home.
“How many of you do home composting in your homes? That is the purpose. No matter how much we talk, our Prime Minister has been talking about cleanliness for the last 10 years. All of us — municipal corporations, municipalities — talk about cleanliness. But now I ask people, how many of you have started doing it?” she said.
Mandeep Kaur said she has been posing the same question to her municipal commissioners and officers, asserting that awareness can only be spread when officials practise it themselves.
“No matter how much we talk about cleanliness, until we start from our homes, nothing is going to change. So this is the purpose of taking this message to children’s schools,” she said.
The official said the department started the cleanliness internship programme in Jammu as children can influence behavioural change within households.
“Until children don’t start forcing their parents in their homes, we will not only keep our homes clean, we will also keep our surroundings clean. Until then, nothing will change,” she said.
Mandeep Kaur said heavy capital expenditure on waste management infrastructure would yield no results without citizen participation, pointing to the mismatch between the number of sanitation workers and the city’s population.
“No matter how much we spend thousands of crores to build MRFs, to buy cars, and to create processing facilities all over the world, nothing will change until you don’t change the environment of your home. Municipal corporations have 3,000 to 4,000 cleaners. And what is the population of Srinagar? 16-17 lakhs. We can’t force so many people. And everyone will think that the person who comes from the municipality will clean, but we don’t have a job,” she said.
She lamented that despite repeated appeals against plastic use, its consumption continues unabated.
“So we keep saying no to plastic. But everybody uses it. So our aim is to create clean warriors in our schools, in our homes. And these warriors should start a fight against pollution, so that this pollution can be removed from our beautiful Jammu and Kashmir,” she said.
Mandeep Kaur said the ultimate goal is to ensure that tourists do not carry back an impression of a “dirty” Kashmir.
“When tourists come here, they should not say that it is beautiful, but it is dirty. And we should not go abroad just to see the beauty, just because there is no cleanliness there,” she said.
On Srinagar’s ranking in cleanliness surveys, Kaur said the city scores poorly on processing despite having an effective collection system.
“If we talk about Srinagar, it is ranked 26th in terms of clean air. And if we talk about 23rd, it is ranked 4th. That is the problem in Srinagar. We have started working on it now. Our project was made a long time ago, but it was not processed. Because of this, our rank suddenly drops,” she said.
“If you compare Srinagar with other cities, it is very clean. Which means there is a collection. In Srinagar, you don’t see roadside dirt. But there is no processing. Because for us, it was an unmanageable problem, which was difficult to find a solution. But thankfully, the solution has been found, and cleanliness has started,” she added.
Expressing confidence that Srinagar would improve its national ranking, she said, “I hope that in two years, Srinagar will at least come in the top three.”
Asked about the importance of spreading awareness among children, Kaur said, “I just talked about it. If you have not registered now, how will they register?” (KNS)
