Recently Hindi film actress Anushka Sharma and her cricketer husband Virat Kholi were in the news for pulling up a fellow Indian throwing trash out from his luxury car window, in the city of Mumbai. While Anushka was busy giving her piece of mind to this irresponsible fellow, Virat was quietly shooting the scolding episode on camera. Apparently he posted the incident on his social media account and what followed later was merely noise without really contemplating on any lasting solution.
So what made Anushka do what she did? Was it just a plain impulsive moment? Was she just playing her part, since she is included by Prime Minister Modi in the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan? Or was she upset that her Swachh Bharat cess was not showing any results on the ground, so what if this tax is now hidden in the all inclusive GST. The guy on the receiving end kept silent probably realising his mistake, but imagine he was a little impish in character and chose to reply back using the choicest expletives as part of his justification, one wonders what might be the end result of such a confrontation. These situations usually occur in a banana republic where rules and responsibilities are not clearly defined. Anushka seems to have diverted her anger to the low hanging fruit an individual with bad civic sense, it would be better she would also focus on the rusty government machinery.
Here comes the question; just because we feel cheated that our tax money is not spent wisely with any result on the ground, should citizens take law in their hands and start punishing or shame people who don’t conform to our standard of cleanliness. As a country do we even have a minimum standard to be maintained as far as cleanliness of public places is concerned? Without proper code of conduct the word cleanliness has a different meaning to different people. These are the signs of a broken system, that it is now not only angering the usual activist citizens, but also forcing celebrities to throw caution to the wind.
Goa has been witness to such episodes practically on a daily basis with our fellow Indian tourists and some Goans even flinging garbage from their vehicles almost anywhere with no respect to the environment. Many trash throwers usually come up with an excuse that there are no sufficient trash bins hence the stupid behavior. Very few Goans dare attempt an Anushka type rebuke but many just shrug off or stay away from any potential controversy. However, there are some Goans who have shared videos reprimanding tourists coolly cooking meals wherever they can park their big fat bus. This only points to citizens starting to take law into their own hands, because of their faith in the system severely eroding.
The biggest drawback with the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan was that there was hardly any focus on levying fines on the violators. For the record, yours truly had suggested the fining system in the same publication and column way back in February 23, 2006. It is only now some sort of fining mechanism is being put in place by different states including Goa. But even fines will not work if there is no proper staff to catch the culprits. Don’t expect people to pay fines automatically just by seeing some prohibition boards. We need physical people fully equipped, on the ground, to not only chase the culprits but to enforce and collect the fines. Ideally the police should be kept out of this unless required in extreme violent cases. Money collected from these fines could then be used for cleanliness projects only.
Goa could also generate employment to those who are willing to work on contract basis without increasing the government employee strength, with no fixed salary component but incentives only. Fixed salary, usually turn employees into lazy gossip mongers burdening the exchequer while ‘incentives only’ will keep them on their toes while getting the job done. Fines to trash throwers should be substantial and the incentive to employees should be at least 50% of the fine collected. A small area has to be designated depending on the footfalls to minimum two employees. They should be given dual roles, one fining the culprit and the other collecting garbage incase the culprit had his dirty way of throwing trash. End of the day, employees should upload pictures of their designated place clean and tidy. Their entire incentive payment should be linked to the amount of clean pictures with date and time stamp they upload and the money they collect as fines.
Meantime government on the other hand will have to install garbage bins, collection of garbage before the bin gets overfull, and complete the end to end waste management solution, so as to not create a Sonsoddo type mountain of garbage, which actually mocks the waste collection process. Only then can we achieve a garbage free Goa, and while at it make some money to self sustain the project.
Above solution takes care of citizens and tourists generating trash, but what about the government Public Works Department who dig up more dirt than tourists and Goans combined. Does the government even have proper rules for contractors to maintain standards of cleanliness; they probably have, but are blinded with the bribes they receive from these contractors. If tourists and citizens are going to pay fines government contractors cannot be left off the hook.
Anuskha and Virat have just moved recently to Mumbai, they have probably seen firsthand the rain flooding of the low lying areas of the city. They might have also witnessed this year the sea dumping nine tonnes of trash on the iconic Marine Drive. The couple should seek an appointment with the Chief Minister of Maharashtra and ask him his long term plans on the garbage menace. Virat can probably record the meeting and tweet it for everybody to see.
(Plastino D’Costa is a business consultant)
