Modi's Swachchta Mission
Law and order linked with garbage
and encroachments
Agra October 17 (IANS)
Agra city magistrate Rajesh Kumar Srivastav has
warned encroachers and garbage dumpers to stop creating public nuisance,
otherwise action would be initiated under 144 CrPC.
In his order Srivastav has warned encroachers of
public roads, particularly in the Taj Ganj area, to immediately vacate and
ensure free flow of traffic. He has asked magistrates to identify garbage
dumpers on public land or in open drains and proceed against them under the 144
Cr PC.
In his order, he reminded local residents that
the new tourist season had begun. "The image of the city should not be tarnished
by encroachements and squalor." No one should occupy pavements to set up kiosks,
the order said. Around the monuments, any encroachment would be firmly dealt
with, he clarified.
Srivastav warned the public not to litter or
throw polythene in drains.
By linking law and order with encroachments and
littering around, ADM city Rajesh Srivastav has shown courage and opened a new
line of action, said India Rising volunteers Sudershan Dua and Anand
Rai.
But whether the move would pay off, is highly
doubtful, says Shravan Kumar Singh, an activist. Legally speaking the provision
can be used only to stall or contain public nuisance. "Now how the district
administration plans to use it for promoting cleanliness, remains to be seen,"
Singh said.
"People in Agra are so comfortably -compatible
with dirt and squalor, they would not respond to Srivastav's good-intentioned
move. Though it was high time the rule of law and the fear of the danda was
strictly enforced. If we can not keep India's number one tourist destination
clean and green, a big question mark would tag Modi's Swachchta Mission,"
commented home-maker Padmini Iyer, associated with MycleanIndia campaign,
started in 2007 by an Australian Gandian Remco van Santen.
Talking to IANS from Australia, Remco said " Do
you know why there is a ‘My’ in ‘My Clean India’? I feel the PM is right to say
that a clean India will give as much joy as the Quit India campaign as My Clean India is about us, you and I, about not pointing
the fingers at others, as I once encountered in 2007. Seven years ago, I asked
the people of Nainital about all the rubbish and their fingers came out -
fingers pointing to tourists, to the nagar palika, to the Lakes Commission etc.
Well while I don’t mean to single out that town, because in the scores of towns
and cities I visited, I heard the same story, of blaming others for indifference
to the littering."
Remco in his email explained "My
Clean India" was progressively launched
and 20 places like Agra, Ajmer, Almora, Allahabad to Lucknow to Ghaziabad etc
have been in action. Nainital stood out as it didn’t stop with a clean up day,
the people took action, creating Mission Butterfly as a remarkable, community-owned waste
management programme. A stunning statement of what is possible through a change
of attitude which is what Gandhiji was
promoting.
Remco said "again, I would like to share why I
started this campaign and encourage you to actively participate with the PM as
MCI is also in the interest of the core of the country, the youth. It was
because a group of young students from St Mary’s College in Nainital, who
stopped me in the street in 2007 asking me, and as a foreigner, “Please Sir, can
we take charge of the Mall Road (the main road), and ensure it is kept clean?”.
The youth really do want to make a difference, but they often don’t feel they
know how and will even approach a foreigner, me, in desperation. The youth don’t
feel the opportunity or the freedom to take action – that freedom I call
“space”.
He told IANS that My Clean India creates “space”, the freedom, for others to
be in action. Your role, your opportunity, is therefore to help create that space. The challenge is not to cajole,
request or push people into action, but to create the opportunity for them, to be in action, because they want to and own the result of what they do.
Put more simply, your role is to create a vision that they want. This can be a
clean and prosperous town, or a clean school, or the surrounds of the school. It
is very important that they are seen as the initiators and can own the outcome
of what they have chosen to do towards a clean
India.
Remco urged people
"will you take on this challenge of creating the
opportunity to create a Clean India? My Clean India can become the inspiration
for the world, including my own country. India is an amazing country and in many
respects a model for the world. That is why I love your country and its
people."
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About
REMCO
Remco
Van Santen is a former director of the chemical industry consultancy Chemlink
pty ltd with degrees
in science and economics, and a masters degree in business administration.
Through his consultancy
he has worked for state and federal governments, transnationals, and Asian
countries. He has
chaired conferences and been keynote speaker in Australia and Asia, a Fellow of
the Royal Australian
Chemical Institute and Chair of their Industrial Chemistry Division, Fellow
Australian Institute of
Company Directors and on various industry boards and committees. In more recent
years he has trained
and practised as a personal development coach. He
is a father of three children and lives in Perth, the capital of Western
Australia. Today
he is passionately committed to the young people who he sees as having the
potential to correct the
problems in the environment and live in a more satisfying way. He says’ “we oldies have
created the problems, it is
the younger generation with the passion that can be the change we
want”.
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