Defecation free dreams: Inflated in J&K

Coronavirous scare spreading fast in Jammu & Kashmir like other parts of the country and several other countries has sky rocketed the concerns of the government on public health and forced it to issue advisories. Had the government shown concerns on public health and implemented plausible measures to upgrade the civic facilities in Jammu & Kashmir, the need for issuing advisories won’t have arisen at all. Though the focus is on the personal hygiene of the people but ironically the functioning of public latrines and open urinating at public places are the two major concerns which have gone unnoticed. Unfortunately municipal corporations in the twin capital cities-Srinagar and Jammu have failed to maintain the latrines built by it over the period of years and implement a blanket ban on open urinating in public places. Had the top civic bodies of the twin capital cities taken care of these two basic issues of public concern, the challenges to fight cornoavirous won’t have been as huge as they are now in the present scenario. Focus on sweeping but no focus on proper maintenance of the public latrines and ban on open urinating at public places by the civil bodies is cities and towns across Jammu & Kashmir deserves immediate attention and intervention of the government. This year when Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke of the government’s measures taken to build public latrines to make India a defecation free country in his annual address at United National General Assembly (UNGA), a message went out that every state and union territory of India is defecation free but the defunct public latrines and open urinating at public places in cities and towns of Jammu & Kashmir dispute the claims of prime minister on his government’s plans to make every part of India defecation free.
Instead of poking their nose into controversial decisions of the government, the heads of municipal bodies in twin capital cities and major towns of Jammu & Kashmir could have raised the standards of public health to the extent of neutralizing the threats of any epidemic or endemic in their respective areas of jurisdictions but unfortunately they speak more and do little to raise the standards of public health in their areas of jurisdictions. Not word but actions on ground alone can address the public health concerns of the people in every street and every locality across Jammu & Kashmir.
Undoubtedly the idea of making a country , a state, a city, a town and a village defecation free is laudable but the challenge of translating this idea into a reality demands implementation and execution of the Prime Minister’s announcements on ground not only in Jammu & Kashmir but also in other parts of the country. Instead of poking their nose into controversial decisions of the government, the heads of municipal bodies in twin capital cities and major towns of Jammu & Kashmir could have raised the standards of public health to the extent of neutralizing the threats of any epidemic or endemic in their respective areas of jurisdictions but unfortunately they speak more and do little to raise the standards of public health in their areas of jurisdictions. Not word but actions on ground alone can address the public heath concerns of the people in every street and every locality across Jammu & Kashmir.