India’s dirtiest city Gonda cries for attention
GONDA: For 12-year-old Binni, treading the kilometre-long stretch in Gonda’s Vishnupuri locality to catch a three-wheeler to school has become an obstacle course. She skips and jumps around the heaps of garbage a strewn along the street.
By the time she returns home, her shoes are a muddy mess. “This is an everyday routine,” says her mother Shanti.
On Friday, local newspapers prominently reported the Swachch Bharat survey released by the urban development ministry, which declared Gonda as the dirtiest city in the country.
Gonda was ranked 434th and fared poorly on all parameters. “The ranking has not come as a surprise. In a state-level survey last year, Gonda had performed poorly,” said a resident of Malviya Ganj locality.
“In Gonda, you won’t find dustbins. Hence, you will see people tossing garbage-filled plastic bags from their balconies or drop it on roadside when they leave for office,” says Shiv Sharan Shukla, 65, a resident of Civil Lines.
Garbage usually lies on the roadside and much of it is burnt by cleanliness workers .
The city has 10 big drains connecting to smaller ones to take sewage to Bisuhi river. Almost all of them are choked with encroachment; dirty water from houses overflows and seeps into the earth, mixing with the groundwater.
Residents say the Swachh Bharat mission was only a photo opportunity for officials.
The government has summoned senior district officials for an explanation. But officials blame it on poor resources and manpower. “There is no permanent head of the municipal corporation. Lack of cleaning staff and poor management is the reason why Gonda fared poorly,” said Gonda ADM, Triloki Singh,