Maligning the pa(a)n-appeal
NOT SO CLEAN Spitting at public places has become a problem in Kashi
If you are in Banaras, enjoying a paan or two (betel leaf) grown in the region is something you can’t resist. But the moment one spits paan in a public place, one makes it dirty and also shows lack of civic sense. Plus, paan spitting also tarnishes the image of the ancient city among the foreign tourists visiting the place.
The same is happening around the world famous Ganga ghats here. At a time when the government is making all possible efforts to ensure success of its ‘Clean India’ campaign, paan chewers in the parliamentary constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi are staining walls, platforms and staircases of the ghats.
A German visitor Oliver Path was walking at Dashaswamedh ghat to click the sunrise. When he moved to a bench to sit and rest, he was surprised to see paan spitting all over it. It was not a rare case. The overseas as well as domestic tourists often come across unpleasant sights of people spitting paan on the walls of the ghats.
Jagannath Ojha of Assi area who runs a drive to make locals aware of the importance of cleanliness, says, “I remember singer Kailash Kher, who is among those nominated by the PM for ‘Swachh Bharat’ drive, appealing to Kashites to shun the habit of spitting paan here and there during his visit to Varanasi last year. But it fell on deaf ears.”
Let alone ghats, the sight of stained walls is common across the city. Temsutula Imsong, a young woman from Nagaland who works to keep the temple town clean, says, “The spitting of paan leaves its mark that is hard to erase. It also shows that paan chewers are not at all bothered about their surroundings. By doing so, they are maligning the image of Varanasi and our country too.”