Sir,

I appreciate the initiative taken by our MP Yaduveer Wadiyar and others in cleaning Kukkarahalli Lake and its surroundings recently. However, have we not seen similar efforts in the past? Do we observe any long-term improvement from such efforts?

There is no other way to keep our city clean except by imposing penalties on those who pollute. Additionally, we should hire more people to monitor the polluters and expedite the cleaning process. By the time one area is cleaned, polluters start littering places that were cleaned just a few days ago. The Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) must understand that the speed of cleaning should be faster than the rate at which littering occurs. Isn’t this simple common sense?

Here, I must commend the MCC pourakarmikas for their laudable job of collecting and removing garbage from house to house every single day, rain or shine. I am saying this from my daily observations in Vijayanagar 3rd Stage.

Shrikanth, known as Kantharaj to his colleagues, is incredibly sincere and dedicated to his work. For several years, I have seen him go out of his way to hand-pick garbage thrown by motorists on the side of the road from Bunts Bhavana to the traffic signal near the Aishwarya Petrol Bunk.

How can anyone expect someone to hand-pick dirty garbage? Would you pick up garbage with your bare hands if it were dirty and nauseating, thrown by others? You wouldn’t. So how can you expect anyone else to pick up garbage thrown by you?

Instead, we should catch the person red-handed who is littering, make them pick up the garbage, and put it in the dustbin.

In short, I suggest imposing severe fines on polluters, like in Singapore, and hiring more people to keep the city continuously clean. Lastly, we should not mind paying higher taxes specifically for this objective. We can afford to pay for keeping our city clean when we have money to eat out, go to movies, and splurge on non-essentials at shopping malls.

Once we achieve the required level of cleanliness over time, we can think about making our city the most beautiful, which is possible (for which I will share my ideas once cleanliness is achieved).

– Arun Raj Urs, Mysuru, 17.7.2024

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