JKNPP protests poor sanitation in Gandhi Nagar areas, pulls up JMC, ERA

Harsh alleges plunder of huge funding under “Swachh Bharat Mission”

Jammu, May 22: Perturbed over the felting plight of Gandhi Nagar and its adjoining areas which had posed a grave threat of an imminent epidemic endangering the public health, a strong joint contingent of Panther activists and the local residents led by Mr. Harsh Dev Singh Chairman JKNPP and other leaders staged a vociferous protest demonstration on the main highway at Nai Basti Jammu today resulting in suspension of vehicular traffic for more than an hour. The angry protestors raised slogans against the administration and Jammu Municipal Corporation in particular for their apathetic approach towards the poor sanitation of the entire vicinity seeking immediate action from the local authorities.
Shocked over the erratically scattered heaps of garbage in Gandhi Nagar and the broken culverts over the nallah at Nai Basti in particular, Mr. Harsh Dev Singh said that the senseless demolition of the culverts by the JMC had exposed the running sewer line containing tonnes of human, animal and plastic waste. He said that the unhygienic state of the nallah emanating foul odour had wrecked havoc among the local shopkeepers and the residents as the dangerous situation had led to breeding of mosquitoes besides infestation of rodents inside. He said that entire area had become epidemic prone with infectious diseases like Dengue, Malaria, Plague, Cholera, Typhoid, influenza posing imminent threat in the vicinity. Expressing anguish over the miserable plight of the local residents, he said that several domestic households at Nai basti had made temporary arrangements to cover the sewers to protect themselves from health and accident hazards. He divulged that the local residents had brought to his notice that many people including the two wheeler riders had fallen into the open trenches on several occasions resulting in severe injuries. He said that such grim situations were squarely responsible for tagging Jammu city as the “filthiest city” of the State in a disturbing announcement made by the Union Ministry of H&UD on May 4th.
Lampooning the grandiloquent claims of mandated Jammu leaders to convert Gandhi Nagar as model constituency in such a scenario, he regretted that the concerned BJP Minister’s rants of transforming Jammu as a model city had only made him an object of ridicule. He said that due to the lack of appropriate sanitation policy and proper garbage disposal system, the accumulation of polythene bags and plastic pet bottles in the sewers as well as on the land was mainly responsible for the alarming environmental pollution besides health hazards to both humans and animals. He regretted that the power intoxicated Saffron leaders had failed to respond to the grave situation and proved inefficient to take preventive measures to curb the menace of poor sanitation of the city. He pulled up and cautioned the JMC and ERA to promptly act by executing mechanical extraction of the solid waste from the entire sewer line (nallah) at Nai basti followed by reconstruction of culverts in the interest of the public health and safety, otherwise Panther party would be forced to gherao the Municipal Commissioner besides the urban development Ministers. He said that the H&UD must account for the hundreds of crores of rupees received under sanitation and “Swach Bharat Mission” schemes.
Mr. Yash Paul Kundal, fearing imminent epidemic in Gandhi Nagar and its adjoining areas said that the manifestation of the dangerous unhygienic condition would further worsen during the monsoons, and as such the people should keep their vicinity clean by following a proper garbage disposal regimen for healthy living. He appealed to the local shop keepers and residents about the harmful effects of the exposed ‘nallah’ on human health and asked them to stand united to get rid of the menace. He also adjured the civil society, students and youth to join the Panthers party’s “Swach Jammu Abhiyan” to make Jammu city clean and green.
Prominent among those who spoke on the occasion included Rajesh Padgotra, Gagan Pratap, Parshotam Parihar, Nirmal Kishore, Sham Gorkha, Bodh Raj, Rohit Sharma, Karnail Singh, Mohinder Singh, Vishav Singh, Arun Khajuria, Rashpaul Singh, Sukhjit Sukhi, Atul Mahajan, Sanjay Gupta, Rahul Gupta besides others.