n a stern message, the Delhi government on Monday warned school officials of “suspension” from services in case of failure to ensure cleanliness within December 10, saying it was a “sin” to make child
n a stern message, the Delhi government on Monday warned school officials of “suspension” from services in case of failure to ensure cleanliness within December 10, saying it was a “sin” to make children sit in dirty classrooms.
Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, who also holds the education portfolio, said school management committee (SMC) teams and senior officers of the department will begin inspections of schools across the national capital after the deadline in this regard.
The education department has directed the schools to file an Action Taken Report (ATR) on the status of cleanliness and hygiene in their respective campuses by December 9. Action against defaulters may include suspension from service and initiation of departmental proceedings as per rules, the government said.
“The government is of the considered view that it is no less than a sin to force children to sit in dirty classes and complacently watch them playing in unclean grounds where there is filth and rubbish,” the department said in a statement.
According to the officials, the government will treat it as a long term measure and all schools have been advised to make the cleanliness drive a part of their official routine in their respective campuses.
Schools have been asked to upload this information on the “Swachhta” page on the department’s website and urged to engage sanitation staff.
Cleanliness drive fails to resolve issues According to reports and data, the sanitation-cum-cleanliness drive — the Swachchh Delhi Abhiyaan — that sought to rid the city of garbage and construction material waste has measurably failed to address the problem.
The authorities — the three civic bodies, PWD and several others agencies, including NDMC, DDA and the Jal Board — which ensure civic services, especially sanitation activities, have yet to work on a foolproof plan to tackle the issue and provide a clean city.
The capital is adding nearly 10,000 metric tonnes of garbage every day while thousands of metric tonnes of unattended garbage is lying in various nooks. But the agencies, which have been crying for resources, mainly financial, have yet to set aside their differences to solve the stink.
Almost a fortnight ago, Union urban development minister M. Venkaiah Naidu and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, along with the three civic bodies, launched the “Swachchh Delhi Abhiyan”, setting aside the differences between the AAP government and the BJP-ruled civic bodies for a common cause: a clean Delhi.
Even after claiming to remove the garbage during the 15-day drive, lack of coordination between the agencies reflected up to a larger level.
“Let’s come together and clean Delhi, it’s not rocket science,” the leaders declared. The leaders, at the occasion, made tall claims, but there is a deluge of complaints of garbage lying in and around the city by citizens.
After failing to remove garbage from the city roads, streets, vacant lands and colonies, the authorities has extended the period of drive for 10 days. “Following the reports of garbage lying hither and thither, it has been decided to extend the period. Earlier drive was launched between November 16 and 30 but now was extended to December 10. During this period agencies have been asked to work with proper coordination to ensure proper cleanliness of the city,” said an official of the Delhi government. The agencies and their officials, however, avoids to talk why cleanliness always remains a big issue in the Capital One major reason is that the civic bodies’ sanitation wing, which is always under the scanner due to inactivity and contract issues, doesn’t have enough teeth in terms of manpower and infrastructure to make Swachh Delhi a reality. The Delhi government’s campaign for a clean city has also hit a technical glitches throughout the special drive and even around 5,000 complaints posted through a special app showing a common sender. According to the all three corporations report, during the 15-day long sanitation-cum-cleanliness drive, the agencies received nearly 38,000 complaints but more more that half of them were remain unattended.
Leader of house in South Corporation, Ashish Sood, said, “Civic bodies are facing difficulty to verify complaints or contact the complainant because of the number glitch.”
“Also, it’s a major blip on the credibility of the application. It seems the government launched it in haste without conducting proper trials and checks. The IT wing of the civic body was talking to the government and app developers to resolve the problem,” said the civic body official. The government officials,on the other hand, claimed the app was working just fine and was being continuously evolved to help city’s resident. “If the locations shown in the complaint are different, then how can it be a technical error There is nothing wrong with the app and it is being continuously moderated to cater to the people. “We regularly monitored number of complaints and action taken through daily reports by area concerned officials. To clean the city, the need of the hour is to work on one platform and to develop a proper mechanism,” the official said.
