BHOPAL: The city has received Self Sustainable Capital Special Category Award, which has made the residents proud. But it took hard work and innovative approaches by elected representatives, municipal officials and employees to achieve the feat.
Former municipal commissioner B Vijay Dutta conducted new experiments to improve city’s sanitary conditions. Many new methods were adopted for dry waste along with wet waste. The use of plastic in the city also decreased.
Online monitoring of door-to-door garbage collection played a key role in maintaining cleanliness in the city. Route charts were made so that carts could reach every household on fixed time. New vehicles were purchased as needed. In addition to installing GPS, a team was deployed led by assistant commissioner level officer in the control room from 6 am for online monitoring. The police department too helped in maintaining the cleanness in the city.
Ex-corporators also contributed
Former mayor Alok Sharma and ex-corporators also contributed. They monitored the programme in their area and pressed for cleanliness wherever needed. Sharma took meetings with businessmen and asked them to avoid use of plastic, polythene bags. The hawkers were also asked to avoid their use. They were penalised for using the polythene. This bore fruits. The use of polythene dipped and city appeared clean. People were appointed to sweep fallen tree leaves and a separate arrangement was made for their collection. They stopped residents from throwing domestic waste on roads.
