With Jammu city once again figuring amongst the tail enders in the ‘Ease of living Index’ in the recent survey conducted by Union Urban Affairs Ministry, Mr. Harsh Dev Singh JKNPP Chairman and former Minister today observed that the revelation has fully exposed all the haughty and supercilious claims made by the BJP leaders of Jammu. He pointed out that “Swachh Survekshan-2020” released by Union Housing and Urban Ministry on August 20, 2020 had placed Jammu city at 224th place in the country and the dirtiest in J&K UT. He said that the sensational disclosure had not come as wholly unexpected in view of the extremely chaotic sewerage, drainage and development scenario in the city of temples. With Srinagar City getting 36th rank in the said survey, it was once again proved that Jammu was the least priority was the present BJP regime which continued to give focused attention to Kashmir. It was further a bracing slap on the face of Jammu based BJP leaders who were making tall claims on development and beautification of Jammu city, said Singh.
Dubbing the August 20 revelation as another shocker for the people of Jammu and an eye opener for the power intoxicated BJP leaders ruling the roost in JMC as well, 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 earlier also sensational disclosures were made by the Union H&UD Minister in ‘Swachh Survekshan-survey 2017, 2018 & 2019’ which had exposed the state BJP leadership for its treacherous, deceitful character. “While Leh, Srinagar, Anantnag, etc were ranked higher in the said surveys also 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 Saffron leaders”, dismayed Harsh added. He further expressed shock over the frequent 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.
Mr. Harsh Dev Singh said that large scale encroachments, non initiation of action against pollution creating units including brick kilns, stone crushers, hot 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 the Jammu leadership should wakeup from deep slumber and learn lesson from other cleaner cities and their leadership so as to erase the stigma of dirtiest city rather than making absurd claims of its beautification and development.