Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)

Mangaluru, Mar 23: The Dakshina Kannada district has always taken pride in claiming to be a highly educated district with a lot of intelligent people. It was recently declared as an open defecation free district.

However, before taking credit for this appreciable feat, one should not lose sight of the fact that we have turned the district into a storehouse of garbage because it is everywhere and the people are responsible for this situation.

Under the 'Swachh Bharat Mission', the central government has been sanctioning grants to individual gram panchayats to enable them to collect the garbage generated in their respective areas and to dispose them off in a scientific manner. But the people of Dakshina Kannada have created a situation under which they have to sit up and cogitate on whether they are justified in creating the notion of being part of a district of intelligent people.

Of course, garbage disposal has become a huge challenge for all the countries including the developed ones. Sortinkg out the garbage into wet, dry, and e-waste has itself become a major challenge for them because the market has become consumer-centric, and the people's income has gone up. More things are wasted and thrown away now than ever before. Dakshina Kannada, which takes credit for having the most educated people and is open defecation free, is failing in the matter of garbage handling.

Heaps of plastic bags filled with wet waste are found everywhere as the people take responsibility only for taking out the garbage bags from the houses and disposing them off away from their own homes. Therefore, garbage including damaged or replaced bathroom fixtures are seen to have been abandoned by the sides of the road. Every road, including the municipal, zilla panchayat and national highways, are lined up with garbage bags. People find it easy to take the garbage on their two-wheelers or four wheelers and dispose them off when the vehicle is moving to see that their own problems are addressed, as they fail to realise that they are creating problems for the other citizens..

Many gram panchayats have not started the practice of sorting out the garbage before they are handled and disposed of. The areas where unsightly garbage heaps can be sighted are Konaje, Kinya, Talapady, Ullal, and Deralakatte. Plastic, the most hazardous thing to be disposed of, is thrown with impunity by the roadside instead of giving to the garbage collection vehicles separately.

Burning of plastic releases dangerous gases and this smoke is bad for health. But people burn plastic bags filled with garbage by the roadsides. This can give rise to grave health issues including cancer and there is demand that the local bodies have to take action against such things. But the gram panchayats which find it hard to get these things done, are trying to shy away from this responsibility. Therefore people feel free to throw bags everywhere. Prime minister Narendra Modi, has been giving top priority for cleanliness but the people of Dakshina Kannada seem to be hell bent on defeating his efforts.