JAMMU, May 08: Astounded by the recent ‘Swach Survekshan -2017’ which relegated Jammu City at 251st rank in cleanliness drive and declared it as the dirtiest in the state of J&K, scores of Panther activists led by Mr. Harsh Dev Singh Chairman JKNPP, Mr. Yash Paul Kundal and other leaders staged a vociferous protest demonstration at Exhibition Ground Jammu today. The agitated protestors torched the effigy of the BJP and sought immediate resignation from Minister of Urban Development Dr. Nirmal Singh by holding him responsible for the poor performance of ‘City of Temples’ in the national survey results announced by Union Ministry of Urban Development recently.
Dubbing it as a shocker for the people of Jammu and an eye opener for the power intoxicated BJP Ministers, Mr. Harsh Dev Singh regretted that the city of temples had been converted into a pit of garbage and the pathetic unhygienic condition of the city could only be attributed to the inefficiency and imbecility of the Saffron leaders who were mandated to power by the people of Jammu Pradesh who had pinned high hopes from them. He said that the sensational disclosure made by the Union H&UD Minister Mr. Venkaiah Naidu who announced the results of the aforesaid survey on 4th May at New Delhi, had exposed the state BJP leadership once again for its treacherous, deceitful character. “While Leh, Srinagar, Anantnag, etc. were ranked higher in the said survey based on solid waste management including door to door collection, processing and disposal, ODF (open defecation free) status, Citizen feedback and independent observation, Jammu city was declared as dirtiest in the state despite the tall claims of the State Housing & Urban Develpoment Minister and other Saffron leaders”, dismayed Harsh added. He further expressed shock over the media reports that 95 million liters of untreated sewage was dumped into river Tawi on daily basis but the concerned authorities were still unconcerned and unmoved. Likewise, the highly deficient and defective drainage system, open pits and leakages of water supply pipes, lack of sewage treatment plants, illegal dumping of municipal solid waste, lack of ambient air monitoring stations, etc. posed a serious hazard to human health in Jammu city, he deplored.
Congratulating Madhya Pradesh leadership for getting 1st rank in the country in Clean India Mission Survey-2017 for Indore City besides higher ranks for its other cities, Mr. Harsh Dev Singh said that the Jammu leadership should wake up from deep slumber and learn lesson from such cleaner cities and their leadership. He said that majority of BJP MLAs, MLCs and Ministers were squarely responsible for discrediting Jammu City in the survey and owed an explanation to the people for the poor results which had adversely affected the prospects of the city for declaration as smart city. Perturbed by the results of the survey, Mr. Singh said that Jammu had failed on almost all significant parameters determining its eligibility for Smart city which included progress under Swach Bharat Mission, track record of implementing reforms, e-newsletter, timely payments of salary to municipal staff, execution of master plans, disaster risk management, improved revenues through tax collection and user charges. “Jammu city had virtually lost all chances in the said Smart city race which otherwise could pave way for Srinagar to claim the status with all mega projects making headway over there”, Harsh rued. Holding the H&UD Minister of J&K who is also the Dy. CM responsible for the poorest performance of Jammu city, he said that Dr. Nirmal Singh had lost the moral authority to continue and needed to resign in the face of shocking disclosures made by the Union Govt.
Yash Paul Kundal said that large scale encroachments, non initiation of action against pollution creating units including brick kilns, stone crushers, hot wet mix plants etc and permissions for raising irregular structures through irregularly appointed officers in the municipality had taken a heavy toll of all beautification initiatives pertaining to Jammu city. He said that transfers of five Municipal Commissioners of JMC within a period of two years had made a mockery of the system which unveiled the corrupt motives of the leaders who only swayed people by their hollow slogans and rants.
Prominent among those who spoke on the occasion included Sdr. Paramjit Marshal, Naresh Chib, Gagan Pratap, Shyam Gorkha, Parshotam Parihar, Nirmal Kishore, Raj Kumar Jandial, Sanjeev Verma, Shankaar Singh Sanju, Ram Badyal, Rashpaul Singh, Rakesh Gupta, Ravinder Jamwal, Pratap Singh, Mohinder Singh, Ajay Kumar besides others.
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