CCTV cams help keep Kangra locality clean

Our Correspondent

Kangra, September 20

The Vivekananda Vihar locality in the Birta panchayat of Kangra has become the first rural locality in the state to be put under CCTV surveillance by residents using their own resources to keep the locality clean and strengthen the “Swachh Bharat Abhiyan”.

PR Agnihotri, president of the Vivekananda Vihar Development Committee, who looks after the development of the area, said rural Himachal was suffering in the field of sanitation and cleanliness for want of appropriate sanitation policy for rural areas. He said there was no system evolved for the panchayat areas to dispose off the garbage to keep the area clean.

He said, “In the Vivekananda Vihar locality the residents collect the garbage at one place but there is no agency to lift the garbage from there.”

In the Jayanti Vihar locality in Kangra town, the residents evolved a system to gather the garbage and dump it in a local municipal council dustbin on the Dharamsala road, but the Municipal Council authorities refused to clean the dustbin saying the garbage was put into it by the residents of panchayat areas.

They were asked to pay Rs 2,500 to the Municipal Council for the purpose which they did, but the dustbin of the MC was found missing from the area leaving residents in a lurch. The block development authorities claimed that they had no funds for garbage disposal in panchayat areas.

Agnihotri said the residents started disposing of the garbage on their own. However, some villagers from other localities threw garbage into the bushes or on the roads. He said to stop this mess, residents of the locality installed CCTV cameras.

He said a number of people were caught throwing garbage on the cameras and were forced to clean the spot. This had helped the villagers in keeping the area clean.