The Doon Mozaic, Swachh Bharat and Dilemma of Dehradun Swacch Bharat and Dilemma of Dehradun | Page 19

from the government in the name of Swacchta drives and the government itself
are making money behind the curtains and making fool out of people. They ac-
tually fail to understand that it is no more a small scale scheme that people do
not care about much, it is a mass movement and some locals across Dehradun
are themselves taking initiates to help the poor build toilets with their own mon-
ey. It is bitter slap on the faces of the two. The NGOs have failed to create
awareness in the town regarding the health hazards of the open defecation. A
large population of people still have no option other than to defecate in open. It
is a bitter reality that no one can deny. The laziness on the part of government
and the temperament of making money has brought the shame to Dehradun. The
town once known for its beauty is known as a town of large scale open defeca-
tion. Had the government worked over it in reality, Dehradun would not have
ranked this bad in the annual survey. The myth has been broken and the govern-
ment, the local bodies and the residents have to wake up from ‘their’ dream to
world against the open defecation the swacchta drive in the town. Unless the
people join hands with the government, the goal to eradicate the filth and mak-
ing Dehradun ‘Swacch’ cannot be significantly achieved. Like a competent,
with true competent spirit the officials and the locals should learn from cities
like Indore and Bhopal and study their plan of action to mark the first place in
the swachh sarvekshan. It is no one man’s work to mark 1st position from the
149th position in just 2 years. The immigrants and the illiterates have to be
made aware regarding the swachhta drive and urge them to give up going in
open. A better is position impossible to achieve until we create awareness
among the locals and the immigrants, telling them the benefits of being clean.
Though the movement has no doubt become a mass movement, yet it lacks the
enthusiasm in the town that it should carry. People will have to start treating the
town as their own. This town belongs to an immigrant as much as it belongs to
the resident. It is the duty of a resident to make an immigrant aware and it is the
duty of an immigrant to extrapolate the change for his own betterment and
overall development of the country. A much better rank is not a dream, it can
be achieved by the equal contribution of each individual. The government and
the NGOs will have to work effectively in building as many toilets as set for