Civic Sense: Still Miles To Go

 Odishabarta

Very recently I’ve got the chance of visiting Chandrabhaga, Konark after five years. Chandrabhaga has always attracted me for being less crowded and hence a clean and peaceful beach. But this time when I reached, the landscape had changed a lot. The changes might have occurred gradually with time, but for someone like me, who is visiting the place after such a long gap was really astonishing.

For the efforts of the government and authorities The road joining Sun Temple to Chandrabhaga had transformed from a narrow, half red-mud, half concrete, full of pot-holes road to a black, shining, wide two laned road. Still the work of widening is going on. Again the market at main beach has grown a lot.

 It felt like I was watching a 10 year old child after a gap of 10 years. The number of vendors selling pearl malas,conchs and other sea products to tea-n-snacks points, restaurants, small lodge and guest-house all have increased.

 I could see a marked growth in the number of tourists along with wide streets, markets and many new resorts on the marine drive. But the thing which made me most happy was the increased number of toilet facilities or souchalayas. Previously we used to rush back to the hotel rooms to release ourselves. Or else one had to avoid drinking water and green coconut to avoid the urge and to avoid leaving the beach area without enjoying to the fullest. Also the government had placed a large number of dustbins across the beach, marine drive and market area.

Lack of toilet facilities and dustbins at tourist places has been a matter of concern for Indians,

especially women travelers since long. Providing such basic facilities on roads/ NHs and at tourist attraction points is really a thing of appreciation. Presence of such facilities also increases the face value of our nation (before foreign tourists). While the increase in the number of souchalayas and dustbins made my mood even more joyful, the behavior of our tourists made me sad at the same point.

Where both government and private souchalayas are made available in plenty, the civic sense of our people had yet not improved.

On entering the washrooms one can find unflushed toilet seats with people’s shits, used sanitary pads and diaper thrown on floors, water kept running from the taps, people washing their muddy-sandy shoes and leaving without cleaning the floor area, stale and foul smelling food particles spreaded here and there.

The beach area is also not spared. In spite of the availability of a large number of dustbins, you can find trash everywhere spread instead inside the bins. Torn paper wraps, ice-cream sticks, green coconut shells, used plastic straw, water bottles and take-away mugs, ice-cream cups, wafer wraps and of course human excreta you can encounter with every piece I’ve mentioned without any extra effort.

And if you asks anyone to pick-up the trash he/she had just thrown on the ground, they instantly ask you back, “are you a Modi bhakta? Are you a representative of Swacha Bharat Abhiyaan? Doesn’t Naveen Patnaik providing enough cleaning staffs for tourist places?”

Just like many other instances, this time too I couldn’t find out the point, how does keeping a tourist place or its surrounding or toilet clean is related to our prime minister or chief minister? We often shout for unavailability of public toilet facilities, and when they are made available we fail to keep them clean.

The civic sense of we Indians still have to travel miles to make itself stand proudly before the world. But isn’t it our responsibility as (? responsible) citizens of this country to keep clean and help in maintaining the facilities which are provided by the government?

 The roads, market place, beach, souchalayas, rest areas are made for common people like us only. Money for every development work done by governments is being

paid by the tax payers like us only.Our civic right and sense doesn’t end at critising the government, for not doing this and that! Our civic rights and sense doesn’t end at just using the public toilets but at flushing after using them also!

By;Dr Ipsita Pradhan

Bhubaneswar

Mob: 8018053395