Jammu, January 6: Notwithstanding the claims of Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC) Mayor Chander Mohan Gupta, the results of the Swachh Survekshan-2020 have created an embarrassing situation for the BJP, as Jammu has been declared one of the dirtiest cities of the country.
From its previous 260th rank in 2019, Jammu has slipped to the 318th position in the latest survey, the result of which was declared on December 31, 2019. As the BJP has an absolute majority in the JMC, the Opposition has launched an attack on the ‘saffron brigade’ for its failure to implement Prime Minister’s visionary ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’ in Jammu.
“Instead of focusing on ensuring cleanliness in the city, the BJP leadership is more concerned over raking up emotive issues to divert the attention of people,” Congress leader Vikram Malhotra told media, adding that the civic situation in the city had worsened after the formation of the BJP-led corporation.
Interestingly, Mayor Chander Mohan Sharma claimed that the survey was conducted before his tenure, whereas the BJP-led corporation was formed in October 2018 and the survey was conducted in the last three months of 2019.
“In the next survey, Jammu will be in the first-10 cleanest cities of the country,” the Mayor claimed. He said a comprehensive campaign to clean Jammu has already been started.
Jammu, which is the epicenter of BJP politics, was declared the dirtiest city, which has questioned the ability of party leaders to run civic bodies.
“For the past five years, the BJP has been repeatedly claiming that Jammu would be declared a ‘Smart City’ soon, as it fulfills the criteria for the same. Survey’s outcome is likely to prove counter-productive for the BJP, as since decades, the saffron party has been raking up the issue of discrimination with this region to reap political benefits. For the last over one year, the BJP is running the JMC and survey results have authenticated the allegations that party leadership has failed to live up to the expectations of people,” Malhotra said.
The Union Ministry of Urban Development has adopted comprehensive criteria to declare the performance of different cities across the country under Swachh Survekshan-2020, which aims at capturing the improvement in sanitation scenario, primarily based on making cities and towns open-defecation free and improvement in the processing of municipal solid waste.
