Madhya Pradesh
Your Name Will Be Aired On Radio Or Covered In Newspaper If You Spit On Roads In India’s Cleanest City
If anyone is caught spitting in public places in Indore, the civic corporation will take down his/her name and broadcast it on the radio or will put it in the newspaper to discourage the unhygienic act
New Delhi: Yes, you read that right! If anyone is caught dirtying the roads and walls of Madhya Pradesh’s city Indore by spitting then his/her name will be broadcasted on the radio or will be mentioned in the local newspaper. In a bid to retain its cleanest city tag, the Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) has decided to publicly shame people and discourage others from spitting. A few days back Mayor Malini Gaud announced this move and said the administration will not allow anyone to dirty public areas in any form.
Spitting is a habit that dents our civic cleanliness. Despite giving out several warnings to people and sticking God’s pictures, instances of spitting continue to exist on a large scale. The corporation is ensuring that no marks are deducted in Swachh Survekshan 2018 by renovating public toilets, composting wet garbage, recycling the dry garbage, installing additional bins in public places and so on. We want to maintain our clean image and we will not let this one unhygienic habit come in our way, says an official from IMC.
Considering that spitting is a serious health hazard, the municipal corporation will also soon levy a fine of Rs 200 or more on habitual offenders. The IMC has appointed a special inspecting team who will keep an eye out at places which are highly prone to paan and gutkha spits like the bridge which links Gandhi Bhavan and Regal Square. From next year onwards, the corporation is likely to rope in school children as well in this activity.
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We have used children in several of our cleanliness campaigns and it has always yielded positive results. We will circulate notices in all our schools, requesting the administration to appoint Swachh Ambassadors who can help us out in identifying people who spit, adds the official.
Besides the above measures, the corporation has requested all the vehicle owners to install a small bin in their vehicles and refrain from littering and spitting on roads. It will also ask all the roadside local shops especially the paanwaalas to place spittoons in their premises. The drive of public shaming will be carried out from December 25 onwards.
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Realising that the 2018 competition will be on a much wider scale with nearly 4,041 cities participating, the corporation is enhancing its sanitation quotient in every arena possible. For instance, a few months back it had organised an internal swachhta competition in all its 85 wards for maximum citizen involvement and the cleanest ward was awarded with Rs. 1 crore. The city also came out with ‘Azadi Kachre Se’ (Freedom of Garbage) campaign under which all the bulk waste generators in the city were encouraged to treat their own waste. The civic body had distributed 26,000 blue and green coloured dustbins in slums and economically backward areas of the city to help citizens practice waste segregation.
In 2017 cleanliness survey, Indore was ranked as the cleanest city in India out 434 participating cities. The city, which jumped 24 places higher from the previous 2016 Survekshan, had adopted an all-round approach to gain high sanitation marks. It scored highest in the category of door-to-door garbage collection and maintenance of public toilets. With a highly equipped waste management model and an open defecation free tag already in its kitty, the city will now focus on 100 per cent source segregation.