by Jeevesh Gupta
I am sure the speed at which we Indians are littering our streets and generating garbage in our house is faster than the Vande Bharat Express just flagged off by our PM. As a tokenism, we
once again released the list of cleanest cities in India and NDMC Delhi was one amongst the toppers. One wonders whether the remaining Delhi is not Dilli or is it the dumping ground for NDMC no wonder-one is cleanest and one dirtiest!
I am sure our Delhi and Central government realizes and accepts that children are humans like any other and all children have a right to free education which includes clean surroundings. Recently while driving in my colony, I could not ignore the piles of stinking garbage outside a government senior secondary school (Safdarjung Enclave), opposite Green Field School. In a season of mosquito diseases letting garbage pile up on the road side is nothing less than a criminal act.
Delhi waste as one sees it everyday is still unsegregated and all of it add to the hills at different ends of Delhi. Garbage management is one of the biggest challenges Delhi is witnessing along with its reducing green cover. Pollution will see yet another high this winter with the governments having already given up announcing the same ineffective measures and a mutual political mudslinging will very soon begun in the name of air quality.
While these issues are still not on the system’s priority list, young toddlers in every household are falling sick every fortnight and some every week. They are living on antibiotics, some for bronchitis, asthma and other breathing issues and others facing viral attacks including dengue, cholera, malaria and the list goes on.
While we all continue to dance the dandiya nights, travel the world, drive with closed windows and sleeping in air conditioned rooms, remember that one day very soon this pile of garbage will reach your doorstep and this pollution will make the newborn in your house breathless. Demand your right to clean city and pure air right now and wake up before its all over. Remember this time we all are dying.
