Anna Nagar Chennai Swatch Bharath

I have been living in Anna Nagar West for the Past 35 years or so. The place used to be very clean and without a Swatch Bharat Mission, it used to be maintained well. I miss those days.

I have written in some local newspapers on how garbage lies at various street corners. Initially I thought that the authorities are not doing a good job, but later realized and thought, why at the first place such garbage is on the roads at all?

It is people like us who throw garbage on the road corners. It is people like us who throw garbage around the dust bins, so that the road is littered with filth, birds and dogs make it worse and ordinary citizens like us suffer by just looking at it, leave alone the smell, and insects, which can affect health and safety. That is why I thought that we should first consider why this happens?

There is only so much that the authorities can do to keep Anna Nagar Clean. The cost of managing solid waste is also very high. So what do we do? The people who create the garbage and waste must take accountability for its creation, collection and safe disposal. Unless this happens, we cannot clean up Anna Nagar Chennai.

I am starting this Blog just to create awareness, and definitely not to complain about the authorities. Just see the bad conditions in which the sanitary workers clean the garbage every day. I really appreciate the work they do, and actually pity them because they suffer due to OUR irresponsibility. Just imagine, even medical waste, napkins etc. are freely thrown on the road, and the workers have to clean it up. So the idea behind this blog is to get instances and examples of specific areas where garbage is being thrown on the roads so that we collect some data and then see if we can do something about it. You may post your comments with specific locations, pictures etc. where you see the problem. Then let us see after a few months if we can do something about it.

In the meanwhile, to start the process of taking ownership, kindly do not ask your maid to take the garbage and dump it. Do we know where she or he is throwing it? Either give it in person to the Corporation staff who come every morning or ensure that it is put inside a dust bin. This in itself could bring about a change in Anna Nagar Chennai. More suggestions are welcome.

Let us make a beginning to a Swatch Anna Nagar Chennai. Let us make Anna Nagar a model area for cleanliness.