Rajasthan tops tourist list but at bottom in cleanliness

Rajasthan is one of the top tourist destinations in India. Its cities have been frequented by Hollywood stars Julia Roberts, Angelina Jolly, and Brad Pitt. In fact, not just celebrities but every third foreign tourist who comes to India also visits Rajasthan.

While its magnificent forts, palaces and traditional havelis are a big attraction for tourists, filthy streets are a huge turn away for them.

“India is filthy,” writes Canadian couple Dave and Deb on “theplanetD” blogging site for travellers, on the basis of their visit to Rajasthan. The couple found Goa and Kerala relatively cleaner and sanitised, after which they wrote a blog saying that India was much cleaner than they thought only to take back their words after visiting Rajasthan.

“Now that we are in Rajasthan, we wonder why the governing body doesn’t get its act together. As we have moved on, each city has become more cluttered with refuse, human waste is in the streets along with the cow dung. Open sewers flow along the buildings foundations of old cities and it is impossible to walk anywhere,” the couple wrote on their blog.

This is despite spending millions on the sanitation system. According to interim report of the state finance commission, the five municipal corporations, four of which also happen to be major tourist destination including Jaipur, Jodhpur, Udaipur, and Ajmer, have increased their annual spending to ` 5,592 crore on development in the last five years, nearly half of which was spent only on health and sanitation.

Yet, except VIP areas, it is not possible to walk around without covering one’s nose or taking one’s eyes off the road. A couple of months ago on a visit to Ajmer, none other than chief minister Vasundhara Raje publicly told civic authorities that the city was dirty.

This fact also shows in the ranking of India’s cleanest and dirtiest cities. Rajasthan’s major cities were at the rock bottom. Obviously it would take more than “Swachh Bharat Abhiyan” to change people’s habits and bring in a culture of cleanliness.

Money cannot be a constraint because these municipal corporations have huge annual budgets.

In the Swachchh Bharat Rankings in 2015, Jaipur, known as the “Paris of the east”, was 370 out of the 476 cities surveyed in the country while Jodhpur was at 337, Ajmer at 401 and lake city Udaipur, which is also called the “Venice of the east”, came at an abysmal 417.

In February 2016, Jaipur was at 29th place among 73 major cities surveyed for sanitation scenario. Jodhpur and Kota were at 57th and 58th place respectively while Udaipur and Ajmer couldn’t even make it to the list.

It is not as if plans have not been made. There have been ambitious schemes for waste management including door-to-door garbage collection and power generation from waste but they are stuck in files because of corruption and politics.

Swachh Sarvekshan-2016 Swachh Bharat Rankings 2015 Jaipur 29th 370 Jodhpur 57th 337 Kota 58th Udaipur - 417 Ajmer - 401 Annual Spending of Municipal Corporations 2010-11 Rs. 717.30 crore 2011-12 Rs. 891.46 crore 2012-13 Rs. 1080.99 crore 2013-14 Rs. 1612.61 crore 2014-15 Rs. 1290.32 crore Health and Sanitation Budget 2010-11 Rs. 294.28 crore 2011-12 Rs. 344.94 crore 2012-13 Rs. 400.06 crore 2013-14 Rs. 444.57 crore 2014-15 Rs. 491.75 crore Civic Services 2010-11 Rs. 91.99 crore 2011-12 Rs. 119.92 crore 2012-13 Rs. 141.93. crore 2013-14 Rs. 209.31 crore 2014-15 Rs. 175.96 crore