Doon's marginal rise in cleanliness rankings fails to impress residents, activists

Time of India

6 days ago

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Dehradun: Dehradun's modest climb in the Swachh Survekshan 2024 rankings -- from 68th to 62nd -- has been welcomed by civic authorities, but residents and environmentalists remain unconvinced, arguing that the numbers fail to reflect the city's on-ground realities.
This year, the city scored 7,614 out of 12,500 points, placing it 62nd among 95 cities in the 3-10 lakh population category. However, social activist Anoop Nautiyal said that despite the higher marks, the overall score proportion has actually declined.
"In 2023, Dehradun secured 6,579 out of 9,500 marks -- roughly 69% -- and was ranked 68th out of 446 cities in the 1-10 lakh population category. This year, it's about 61%.
While the marking scheme has changed, the proportion tells a different story. There's immense scope for improvement, but that needs an honest and objective assessment of our current situation. Cleanliness must be prioritised across cities, villages, rivers, forests and hills alike," said Nautiyal.
Environmentalists echoed similar concerns. "Dehradun has all the prerequisites to be among the top 10 -- limited landscape, technology and a relatively educated population.
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Yet, we continue to fall short," said eco-activist Ashish Garg.
He added, "Cosmetic changes aren't enough. Several areas still lack door-to-door waste collection, and garbage-vulnerable points remain eyesores despite official claims. Setting up decentralised waste processing units could improve collection efficiency and reduce the burden on the municipal corporation."
Garg also emphasised the need for stricter enforcement and penalties.
"Dehradun can't be called clean until it looks clean. We're far from that goal," he said.
Experts also flagged Dehradun's continuing challenges with waste segregation at the source. "The successful Harrawala segregation model has yet to be scaled to other wards. Source segregation is key to effective waste management. The Nagar Nigam must focus on awareness campaigns and enforcement across households and businesses," said environmentalist Naveen Kumar Sadana.
Sadana also advocated for decentralised dry waste collection centres and mobile drop-off vehicles, while urging better management of hazardous waste, which he said remains largely ignored.
Civic authorities attributed some of the shortcomings to timing. This year's Swachh Survekshan inspections took place in Feb, during a sanitation workers' strike. The delay in forming a new municipal board also affected performance.
Mayor Saurabh Thapliyal said, "Door-to-door collection has significantly improved since the Dehradun Municipal Corporation took over. Source segregation is now a major priority, and we're bringing in new policies to implement it across the city. We will begin with a few wards and scale up. Our target is to break into the top 50, and we're confident we'll achieve it."