Are We Willing To Spend 15 Minutes Once A Week To Keep Our Surroundings Clean?
New Friends colony is fortunate to have back-lanes of 12 to 15 feet width which ensure better light and ventilation in our houses and also serves the purpose of running service lines like water supply, sewerage, drainage and internet. These back-lanes are cleared by the MCD sanitation workers of the colony periodically. In the last couple of years, various service providers as well as the Delhi Jal Board undertook works in the back lanes leaving behind malba and soil, despite several reminders and meetings on this matter. Unfortunately, the residents too added a huge amount of garbage, household discards and malba which gave both Delhi Jal Board and the other vendors an excuse that all malba in the back lanes was not due to their work. The MCD was unable to remove the malba due to shortage of trucks.
The RWA decided to clear the back lanes using its funds and have till now cleared most of the back lanes in B and C blocks of all malba and work is going on in A block. Post this clearing exercise we hope the MCD sanitation staff will find it easy to sweep and keep them clean. We trust the residents too will help in maintaining their backlanes clean. All it will take is a commitment to treat the back lane as we treat the front of our houses. All it will take is 15 minutes once a week to keep them clean!
True, we pay taxes to the MCD and it is the job of their sanitation department to keep the streets and backlanes clean. But can we as citizens do our bit by not treating the back lanes as a garbage dump?
by Chitra S Jain (Gen Sec, NFC RWA Ashoka Park)
