Citizens need to learn to keep their city clean: HC

The citizens of the national capital need to learn to keep their city clean, the Delhi High Court today said while asking the civic bodies to fix a schedule for collection and disposal of garbage.
"The citizens of the national capital should also have some responsibility. They should also learn about keeping their city clean," a bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar observed.
It said the residents should know how to store the garbage till the scheduled time for depositing it at the designated area.
"In foreign countries, the garbage vans come once a week. There the residents are patient enough to hold back the garbage," it said, adding that the issue of garbage disposal and collection should be taken care of on "war footing".

It asked all the three municipal corporations to start a pilot project of collecting and depositing of garbage as per a fixed time schedule.
"If the time is fixed, the people will also have to abide by it," the bench remarked and said "we want to see that the citizens, who are the sufferers, also learn about keeping their own city clean".

It had earlier issued directions regarding creation of public awareness regarding collection and disposal of waste, saying no long-term plan for making and keeping the city clean would work without the participation of the citizens.
The bench also suggested that the people violating the norms should be challaned.

It said the MCDs should put technologies in place so that the safai karamchaaris perform their duty.
This was suggested by the bench, which has been regularly monitoring the issue of garbage removal and disposal from the city after it was told that lack of cleanliness also leads to spread of vector-borne diseases like dengue, chikungunya and malaria.
The issue of garbage cropped up during the hearing of two PILs by lawyers Arpit Bhargava and Gauri Grover who have sought directions to the municipal bodies and other authorities to take steps to prevent spread of vector borne diseases like dengue, chikungunya and malaria.

During the hearing, the bench again directed the civic bodies that the location and time-wise work roster as well as the identity of each cleaning staff or 'safai karamchaari' should be put up on the websites of the three corporations.
On this, Additional Solicitor General Sanjay Jain, who had appeared for one of the municipal corporation, submitted that the ward-wise particulars of the regular safai karamchaaris will be uploaded by August 31.
The bench then said the authorities should put an end to this issue forever and prepare a road map so that the court need not interfere in the functioning of the civic bodies and other agencies.

The court sought a report, including a plan to resolve the garbage issue, from the authorities and fixed the matter for further hearing on August 2.
Earlier, the bench had directed the Commissioners of the three municipal corporations of Delhi (MCDs) to monitor the attendance of the cleaning staff and to frame a proposal for ensuring they discharge their duties.