Srinagar city finding a place in the top 50 cleanest cities of the country has though brought huge joy and excitement to the Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) but the civic governance on ground in the summer capital shows in poor light both the sanitation and as well as the other allied services like drainage facilities directly connected with cleanliness of the streets and residential colonies in the famed summer capital. Unfortunately plans and achievements collide not only in Jammu & Kashmir but in majority of states in the country and as such there is nothing new in celebration over either Centre’s Swachh Survekshan 2021 award to Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) or it’s mention in Top 50 Cities of the country. Irrefutable fact is that neither the Centre’s Swachh Survekshan 2021 award to Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) nor it’s mention in Top 50 Cities of the country has changed the larger public opinion about the quality of basic civic facilities in Srinagar city. Though water is basic necessity for cleanliness in a house, shop or a religious but since the takeover of the City Water Works Division Srinagar the allegations of water scarcity are galore in dozens of residential colonies in both uptown and old parts of the Srinagar City. Unfortunately the public outcry over water scarcity in most of the residential colonies has gone unnoticed and consequently also unattended even after the commencement of this year’s winter season. City Water Works Division sending water tankers on request by the households instead of upgrading the water supply facilities for regular water facility has become a new norm of water facility in the Srinagar city as authorities prefer to ensure uninterrupted water to hotels built inside residential colonies but not to households in uptown Srinagar. The City Water Works Division does not ever bother to buy the idea of segregating the residential and commercial water connections in the Srinagar. While top helmsmen in Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) talk about Smart City, people are struggling for basic human need in most of the residential areas of the summer capital.
Since drainage system, garbage lifting and disposal and prompt water facility are the bigger part of the basic infrastructure required for maintaining cleanliness in any city in any part of the country, the attention has not to be focused on celebrations over either Swachh Survekshan 2021 award to Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) or mention of Srinagar city in Top 50 cleanest Cities of the country but on both the citizen’s access to basic human needs like water, power and roads and basic infrastructural facilities required for speedy disposal of garbage and fully functional drainage facilities in the city.
In the years 2012-2015 Srinagar Municipal Corporation introduced hoppers for garbage lifting in Srinagar city but during last six years the top civic body of Kashmir has not procured more hoppers for garbage lifting services in newly constructed residential and commercial areas of the summer capital. In the rainy days the hoppers can’t move to newly constructed residential commercial areas which remain inundated for weeks together. Ironically the garbage is not also cleared for weeks together from the dumper placers which have been mostly put on the road sides in the vicinity of the crowded markets both in uptown Srinagar and also in the several areas of old Srinagar city. Even the public complaints about the ill effects of the Achan dumping site are not heard by the authorities of the Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) for the last more than a decade now. Drainage system rendered defunct after the devastating 2014 floods has been neither repaired nor upgraded during last seven years of urban mess in Srinagar city as even now estimates of old and new drainage plans seeking allocation of crores of rupees are gathering dust in the offices of several top authorities of Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) and reasons cited for denying allocation of funds to such pressing drainage projects is allegedly the paucity of funds to be allocated for such works by the concerned administrative department, i.e., Housing & Urban Development Department. Since drainage system, garbage lifting and disposal and prompt water facility are the bigger part of the basic infrastructure required for maintaining cleanliness in any city in any part of the country, the attention has not to be focused on celebrations over either Swachh Survekshan 2021 award to Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) or mention of Srinagar city in Top 50 cleanest Cities of the country but on both the citizen’s access to basic human needs like water, power and roads and basic infrastructural facilities required for speedy disposal of garbage and fully functional drainage facilities in the city.
