Unfortunately the apple orchards have been changed into garbage dumping sites in villages across Jammu & Kashmir which in fact is also a cause of the unprecedented fall in the growth of the apple production in Kashmir Valley.
It is absolutely gratifying that Chief Secretary Dr Arun Kumar Mehta has announced the completion of ‘ODF+ Model’ in all 6,650 villages of 285 blocks in Jammu & Kashmir but the promise of establishing waste disposal system in villages has been left unfulfilled by the Public Representatives of Panchayat bodies on the completion of their five year term in Jammu & Kashmir . Though Chief Secretary’s announcement signals freedom from open defecation but unfortunately the Public Representatives of Panchayats whose duty is to implement waste disposal system in villages have not identified even a single garbage dumping site even in a single village on the eve of the completion of their five year term. True it is that Lt Governor himself and as well as Chief Secretary have taken personal interest in the implementation of “ODF+Model” in more than six thousand villages across Jammu & Kashmir but unfortunately public representatives of panchayat bodies have shown more interest politics and less in taking civic facilities to the door steps of the people in villages. Construction of public lavatories in villages to achieve “ODF+Model” for a village is just a beginning but not an end of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of “Clean India, Green India”. Knowing that the dream of “Clean India, Green India” envisioned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself and introduced in Jammu & Kashmir like other parts of the country through “Swachh Bharat scheme” can’t come true merely by the completion of public lavatories in villages, the public representative of Panchayat bodies in Jammu and Kashmir should have long back identified garbage dumping sites in villages of their jurisdiction and also established garbage disposal sites thereafter. Had Panchayat bodies identified garbage dumping sites in villages of their jurisdiction and also established garbage disposal sites thereafter, not only freedom from open defecation but the implementation of the Prime Minister’s “Clean India, Green India” Mission under his “Swach Bharat” scheme would have wholly transformed J&K villages into models of civic governance.
“The inability of the public representatives of panchayat bodies to bring forward even a single proposal for implementation of waste disposal system even in a single village before the Government has contributed to the increasing mess of garbage disposal in the villages across Jammu & Kashmir. While ‘ODF+ Model’ status in villages across Jammu & Kashmir is the fulfillment of a commitment for the Jammu & Kashmir Government commanded and controlled by Lt Governor Manoj Sinha for last more than three years, the Public Representatives of Panchayat bodies having left the job of establishing waste disposal system unfulfilled on the completion of their five years term owe a lot of explanations to the people who elected them five years back”.
Unfortunately the apple orchards have been changed into garbage dumping sites in villages across Jammu & Kashmir which in fact is also a cause of the unprecedented fall in the growth of the apple production in Kashmir Valley. Though public representatives of panchayats of Jammu & Kashmir should have drawn inspiration from the success stories of “ Swach Bharat” scheme of the hundreds of panchayat bodies of different states and union territories of the country, but they during their five years term did not even once put up even a single waste disposal proposal before the Jammu & Kashmir Government which would have at least changed mission of establishing waste disposal system into action in villages across Jammu & Kashmir . The inability of the public representatives of panchayat bodies to bring forward even a single proposal for implementation of waste disposal system even in a single village before the Government has contributed to the increasing mess of garbage disposal in the villages across Jammu & Kashmir. While ‘ODF+ Model’ status in villages across Jammu & Kashmir is the fulfillment of a commitment for the Jammu & Kashmir Government commanded and controlled by Lt Governor Manoj Sinha for last more than three years, the Public Representatives of Panchayat bodies having left the job of establishing waste disposal system unfulfilled on the completion of their five years term owe a lot of explanations to the people who elected them five years back.
[email protected]


