The Doon Mozaic, Swachh Bharat and Dilemma of Dehradun Swacch Bharat and Dilemma of Dehradun | Page 17

known for the scams than the scenic beauty. Had the government officials, Na-
gar Nigam and Panchayats honestly performed and administered their duties,
Dehradun would have been far ahead in the ‘ Swacchta race’. When it comes to
cleanliness, a government has a limited role to play. Ultimately, it has to en-
sured by the citizens to co-operate and join hands together with the authorities
to ensure the successful implementation of the scheme, but this does not free the
authorities from their duties. The initiative which started as a government
scheme in 2014 has boosted to such an extent that today it has become a peo-
ple’s movement. Now, the matter to think over is that when the movement is
proactive under the government scheme as well as social awareness drives, why
did Dehradun lack behind in the survey? One of the reasons behind it is open
defecation, which is a sad reality in rural as well as urban India till date. Every
morning hundreds of people run towards the railway tracks and on the river
banks to defecate in public, which is one of the factors that the ministry of Ur-
ban Development judges the cities upon. The cities which were once believed to
be the dirtiest in the country, have proved the nation wrong and topped the list
of the swachh cities in India. One such city is Indore, Madhya-Pradesh.
From being placed 149th a cleanliness ranking of India’s cities in 2014, Indore
Municipal Corporation climbed to 25th position in 2016 and to the top of the
heap in 2017. This swift progress was aided by the Municipal Corporation’s
genuine efforts to turn Indore garbage and open defecation free. So, what did
the authorities in Indore do, which Dehradun Municipal Corporation failed to
achieve? The answer is terrifying. Indore Municipal Corporation worked with
six NGOs and their teams to construct 12549 individual toilets, more than 200
urinals, near about 190 community and public toilets, 400 modular and 16 mo-
bile toilet in a period of one year. Apart from this, the civic body ran many dif-
ferent programs to create social awareness related to cleanliness and use of toi-
lets. NGOs came up with effective programs such as ‘roko-toko’ and ‘Dabba-
Gang’ movements under which they urged the residents to stop the people from
going put in the open by making noise with the dabbas they carried. A planned
movement in the heart of India touched the heart of the locals and proved to be
foolproof. Government in Uttarakhand on the other hand has been coming up