Shadow Correspondent
Jammu, Sept 18
With Jammu city figuring amongst the tail enders in the ‘Ease of living Index’ in the 2018 survey conducted by Union Urban Affairs Ministry, Mr. Harsh Dev Singh JKNPP Chairman and Former Minister today observed that that revelation had fully exposed all the haughty and supercilious claims made by the mandated leaders of Jammu. He pointed out that liveability index released by Union Housing and Urban Ministry last month had placed Jammu city at 95th place amongst the 111 cities whose survey was conducted by the Union Ministry.
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. He was addressing well attended public meeting in Ward No. 28, Bakshi Nagar in JMC today amidst massive public response.
Dubbing it as an eye opener for the power intoxicated BJP leaders, 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 a sensational disclosure was made by the Union H&UD Minister in ‘Swach Sarvekshan-survey 2017’ who had announced the results of the aforesaid survey in May, 2017 at New Delhi, had exposed the Jammu leadership once again for its treacherous, deceitful character. “While Leh, Srinagar, Anantnag, etc were ranked higher in the said survey 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 then State Housing & Urban Development Minister and other Saffron leaders”, dismayed Harsh added. He further expressed concern over the frequent media reports that 95 million litters 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.
Expressing concern over the highly unhygienic conditions in the old city and chaotic traffic scenario, Mr. Singh regretted said that the mandated leaders of Jammu had utterly failed to address the concerns of the city people which had given them over whelming mandate in previous elections.
He said that large scale encroachments, non initiation of action against pollution creating units including brick kilns, stone crushers, hot wet mix plants etc and permissions for raising irregular structures through irregularly appointed officers in the municipality had caused huge air and water pollution and taken a heavy toll of all beautification initiatives pertaining to Jammu city.
Calling upon the Jammu people to throw their weight behind Panthers Party and to vote it to power in local bodies polls, Mr. Singh said that NPP alone could ensure equitable and balanced development of Jammu.
Prominent among those who spoke on the occasion included Gagan Pratap, K.K Sharma, Surinder Chouhan, Partap Singh, Nikhil Sharma, Tarsem Singh, Desh Raj Pandita, Neeraj Gupta besides others.
