The selection of Tiruchi as the second clean city among 476 cities in the country has indeed come as a pleasant surprise to the residents. It may in fact attract teams of town planners, civic experts, people’s representatives, activists of movement against manual scavenging and open defecation and others so as to explore the possibilities of replicating Tiruchi model in their towns.
Ever since the news broke out on Tiruchi notched up second position in the country, it has become a talk of the city. Right from morning walkers to office goers and load men to construction workers, they tend to discuss the subject in detail.
While some express happiness over the clean city tag, which will inevitably spread the image of the city across the country, there are dissenting voices too. There are some people, who ponder over the criteria or parameters followed by the Union Ministry of Unban Development for selecting clean cities. Some say that the outlook of Tiruchi has changed to an extent since the AIADMK general secretary Jayalalithaa chose to contest in Srirangam constituency, which is part of Tiruchi city, in 2011 election. Since she eventually became the Chief Minister, it had received due attention from the government on aspects of infrastructural development. There are some, who recollected the contribution of former Union Minister late Rangarajan Kumaramangalam, who played a key role in construction of four overbridges in the city.
A cross section of people say garbage collection, solid waste management, underground drainage system, road and street cleaning are relatively better in areas such as Cantonment, Thillai Nagar, Annamalai Nagar, Srirangam, some parts of Thiruvanaikoil, Kumaran Nagar and Ramalinga Nagar. The level of maintenance of Central Bus Stand and Chathiram Bus Stand has also seen noticeable improvement. However, areas such as Woraiyur, Chinthamani, Devathanam, East Boulevard Road, Palakarai, Edatheru, Melaputhur, Sangiliyandapuram, Gandhi Market, Kattur, Edamalaipatti Puthur, Periya Milaguparai, Karumandapam, parts of Thiruvanaikoil are still considered as grey areas on several aspects of solid waste management. There are reports that open defecation is still prevalent in some parts of Woraiyur, Kondayampettai, Thiruvalarcholai, Krishnamurthy Nagar and others.
However, many are of the view that the city has still a long way to in tasting the fruits of solid waste management. The corporation is still clueless on shifting Ariyamangalam dump yard, which has turned into mounds of environmental hazard. In spite of promises, proposals and plans, they are still on paper. In terms of UGD coverage, it is said more than 40 percentage of households are yet to be covered. Though access to toilets has seen noticeable improvement, civic experts are of the view that safe collection, treatment and disposal of human excreta are still needed improvement.
