War rooms give new impetus to Mission Clean
: A 24x7 cleanliness war room with a team of 10 dedicated employees is functional in Varanasi, the parliamentary constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, since April 1. It is addressing complaints of people related to garbage, sewage, water supply and bad roads round the clock.
Within 12 days, the war room has received 225 complaints and addressed over 155 of them, according to a war room functionary.
The Swachh Bharat Mission (clean India Mission) has gathered new momentum not only in Varanasi, but in the entire Uttar Pradesh after ex-IAS officer-turned-politician Arvind
Kumar Sharma, who has worked closely with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the past, took charge of the urban development department in the Yogi Adityanath government 2.0.
On April 4, the state government issued an order to all municipal corporations, municipal
councils and town areas in UP to set up a war room to achieve the goal of complete cleanliness in their respective cities.
Uttar Pradesh has 17 Nagar Nigams (municipal corporations), 199 municipal councils and 438 town areas.
Varanasi is the first city in UP to have a high-tech cleanliness war room.
Here’s a look at how the war room functions.
As the phone rings, Vidya Prakash Dubey answers, asking the caller the nature of the problem, his or her name and locality with mobile number. Dubey heads the team of employees deployed at the cleanliness war room of the Varanasi Nagar Nigam (VNN) that functions 24X7.
“My name is Rakesh Kanaujia from Chhataripur area. The vehicle is not coming to collect garbage from my locality in the morning for the last two days. Ensure that a garbage lifting vehicle visits the locality daily,” the caller says.
Dubey notes down the complaint and assures Kanaujia that his complaint will be addressed within 12 hours.
The cleanliness war room at the Integrated Command and Control Centre is equipped with state of the art facilities.
The war room numbers are 18001805567 and 0542-2720005. A four-digit number will be functional in the next 10 days.
Likewise, Omkar Nath, resident of Paharia area, dials the cleanliness war room to register a complaint about waste being thrown by locals in the park in front of his house. He urges the war room team to get a big dustbin placed in a corner outside the park.
Another member of Dubey’s team at the war room attends Nath’s call, notes down the complaint and refers it to the official concerned.
The cleanliness war room of VNN receives 25 complaints daily on average, says Dubey.
Set up in 2018, the cleanliness war room started functioning 24X7 from April 1. Earlier, it used to work for about 12 hours. The war room receives the complaints related to problems like waste not being lifted on time daily, litter in the lanes, sewer not functioning, water supply problems, and pot-holed streets. The war room team refers the complaints to VNN officials of the department concerned and gets them addressed within 12 hours.
The war room has a team of 10 employees led by Dubey. Two employees keep the war room functional during the night. Three employees each remain on duty from 6 am-2 pm, 2pm10pm and 10pm to 6am, says Dubey.
The over 225 complaints that the cleanliness war room received from April 1 to 12 include 86 related to sanitation, 65 concerning sewage and water supply, 23 requests to remove animal carcasses and 10 complaints about streetlights not functioning. There were eight complaints related to encroachment on streets and lanes, 36 complaints about potholed lanes, streets, construction debris, encroachments and three complaints about plants not being watered in parks daily. Of the 225 complaints, over 155 were resolved and the remaining are being resolved, claimed Dubey. These complaints will be addressed within the next two days.
“Employees at the war room attend every call. They note down the complaint with name of the person, locality and since how long the problem is pending. The call attendant immediately transfers the complaint to the official concerned on a WhatsApp group comprising the senior officials of Varanasi Nagar Nigam. Within 12 hours, the complaint is addressed,” says Dubey.
Vijay Yadav, resident of Paharia, says, “I lodged a complaint (at the war room) a few days ago regarding lanes not being cleaned daily. Within 12 hours, the complaint was addressed. The sanitation worker comes daily now and sweeps the lanes.” Municipal commissioner, Varanasi, Pranay Singh says, “VNN has its 24X7 cleanliness war room at Kashi Integrated Command and Control Centre. It receives and records complaints about problems related to the cleanliness, sewage, street lights in areas under Varanasi Nagar Nigam. Every complaint received at the war room is resolved within 12 hours. I personally monitor the war room and ensure it.”
The 24x7 war room is an effort to provide solution to the problems related to cleanliness and civic amenities at the earliest, says Singh. Any citizen may call the cleanliness war room if garbage is not lifted daily or water supply is not regular.
Singh says he ensures real time monitoring of solution to the problem — keeping track of when a complaint is received and when it is resolved.
VNN public relations officer Sandip Srivastava says, “VNN is trying its best to make Varanasi the country’s cleanest city. We ensure that every complaint related to cleanliness is addressed at the earliest. Our cleanliness war room has added a new momentum to our efforts like door-to-door garbage collection, cleaning of lanes, roads and ghats.” Around 4500 sanitation workers and 350 vehicles are deployed. Varanasi generates over 700 tons waste daily.
The vehicles collect this waste from different pockets of the city and carry it to the dumping yard.