The Doon Mozaic, Swachh Bharat and Dilemma of Dehradun Swacch Bharat and Dilemma of Dehradun | Page 16

Reality Check of Swachh Bharat in Uttarakhand
Column
By
Kushagra Mittal
‘The twenty-first century’, ‘oldest civilization’, ‘world’s largest democracy’,
and ‘second most populated nation’; What comes to your mind when you read
such eye catching adjectives for your country? Is it ‘developed’, ‘literate’ or a
‘super power’? The reality is indeed very far from it. In spite of being the
world’s largest democracy and second most populous nation, we are struggling
to eradicate the tag of ‘unclean’ country that has been given to us, such that, we
cannot deny it. Uttarakhand, being one of the holiest states in India, marking its
presence in ‘Shastras’ as ‘the land of gods’ is no wonder neglected to such an
extent that its capital, Dehradun could not mark better than the 316th rank
among 434 cities assessed on cleanliness index under the annual Swachh Bharat
Survey conducted by the Ministry of Urban Development, Government of In-
dia. Dehradun has been overexploited since Uttarakhand was carved out of Ut-
tar-Pradesh in November 2000. The town which was once known for its beauty
and cleanliness has now emerged as an unclean, untidy city in sake of boost in
the urbanization since the early twenty-first century. Every government, be the
one when Dehradun was a part of Uttar-Pradesh or the one after having been
given a separate state status, has failed to administer the state acutely. They
have failed to understand what does the ‘Dev Bhoomi’ require. It is a gift from
the governments that Uttarakhand has elected so far that our state is better