While Guwahati, despite numerous attempts by the government, is still battling to instill cleanliness and strewn garbage remains a sore sight in almost every nook and corner of the city, Rukminigaon stands out as one of the cleanest localities in the city.
Located within one of the biggest wards of the Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) - Ward No. 26 - that besides Rukminigaon, includes Bhagaduttapur, Sorumotoria, Kahilipara and parts of Beltola, Hengrabari and Hatigaon, this area (26 A), aided by its residents’ awareness, is “the best” among the three areas under the ward, Councillor Manjula Kakati said.
The first exit to Rukminigaon, about 10 metres before reaching Down Town Hospital while commuting along GS Road towards Khanapara and about 30 metres past the ever busy Supermarket traffic point, bears the hallmarks of cleanliness with every shop having dustbins, almost zero litter around and a cleaner road, despite being located in one of the busiest areas of the city. There are two more exits along the GS Road – Lakshmi Mandir Path above Bharalu River and Tangra Satra Path about a few metres before Six Mile – into Rukminigaon and each of them replicate almost the same scenario.
Bordered on the north by the Srimanta Sankardeva Path or GS Road as popularly known, and the Pir Ajan Fakir Road, earlier known as Beltola Road on the south, both running parallel and connected by the Secretariat Road at the east end and Jayanagar on the west, Area 26 A consists of both Rukmininagar and Rukminigaon along with Ushanagar and Bali Baat.
The area, like other residential areas in the vicinity of Dispur, which was decided as Assam’s temporary capital in 1972, along with Hengrabari, Sorumotoria and Beltola, is mostly inhabited by current and former employees of the Assam Secretariat. Most of them are Assam Civil Service or Assam Police Service officials from the upper and lower parts of the state. In the mid-1980s, the extreme ends of Rukmininagar by the banks of Bharalu River near Six Mile saw the entry of a few Karbi and NC Hills Naga families, who too, came here to work in the Secretariat.
The councilor gives the local residents credit for making this area clean by saying, “It is only possible because they (the residents) are educated and law abiding citizens of the state. They were willing to bring this change.”
The mantra: community chips in along with GMC
The residents recall that not very long ago, the area that has a hospital – GNRC – and is the backside of a well-known market – the Last Gate Bazar – turned into a dumping ground for waste and garbage.
“The GMC trucks used to come here twice a week, but somehow, fresh garbage always used to come up every day. Sometimes hours after the trucks cleaned out the dustbins, they used to get overfilled. That is when we decided that the GMC will do its work regularly, but we too will have to be more organised,” Pinku Ahmed, a shop owner in Rukminigaon said.
Last year around September, the people of Area 26 A had a meeting with all the residents and shop owners in which a few decisions were taken to keep the area clean.
“We had decided to dump the garbage onto the garbage collecting carts only. If we somehow missed the cart, we would dump it at the garbage cans only before the truck arrives. All the food joints and the market vendors, who produce garbage in bulk, too were instructed to follow the dumping instructions. Littering of small plastic wastes such as chocolate wrappers, polythene bags and chips packets too sum up to a dirty look along the streets. So, all the shops were instructed to have a dustbin so that people could buy the product and dispose its wrapper in the dustbins. We also instruct our customers not to litter around,” another vendor Rana Rajbongshi said.
“It isn’t that the area is now completely clean and everybody is abiding by the rules. But it is much cleaner than it once used to be. The area is much cleaner after the exercise has been continued for over a year now,” Rajbongshi added.
Samuel Tumung, a resident of Rukmininagar, however attributes the cleanliness to his Lord, Jesus Christ’s propagation of “Cleanliness is next to Godliness.”
“We (Christians) have been following means to keep ourselves, our souls and our vicinity clean because it is what our Lord Jesus had taught us. Since our father had come here, we had been keeping our vicinity very clean. It is written in the Bible that when we do something good, people around us too, tend to do good. We are just glad that now this area is much cleaner than other parts of the city,” Tumung said.
Hurdles on the road to swachhata
The residents, however, recall that they had to face quite some hurdles in dealing with the NGOs.
The GMC’s process of collecting the garbage consists of two steps – collection of garbage from the houses to the GMC garbage can and from where the GMC trucks ferry the garbage to the dump yards. The garbage was collected by several NGOs from the households. The NGOs are commissioned by the ward councillor.
“The previous NGO was not very sincere and hence often missed out on collecting the garbage. Even after collecting, they used to not dump it in the cans and simply littered around the cans. This attracted dogs that would further spread the garbage around the streets,” Pompi Gohain, a housewife in Rukminigaon said.
She recalled, “At times, when the carts didn’t come regularly, we had to throw the garbage into the cans and since these were so dirty, we couldn’t go close enough to ensure proper disposal. We had to throw it into the can from a distance and often missed, further increasing the littering problem.”
They had brought the issue up with the ward councilor who, after backlogging, finally replaced the non-performing NGOs a few months ago.
“The current NGOs are performing well,” Apasana Mahanta, another housewife and retired professor said.
Councillor more than proud of its residents
The Congress councilor Manjula Kakati however shares the bulk of the credit for the clean area with the residents.
“I was aware of the problems in my ward, but, it is very hard to concentrate on one area when you have such a large ward. I regularly make rounds of all the places within my ward and whenever I see garbage around I either call the NGOs or the GMC to take prompt action. But it is due to the consciousness of the residents here that this area is much cleaner now,” Kakati said.
“I have put equal efforts to keep other areas within my ward clean too, but this area stands out among them all,” Kakati added.
When asked regarding the NGOs, she said, “It is true that for some time we had to struggle with the NGOs. There were two NGOs among a total of three in the ward which weren’t performing properly. I had put that to the attention of the GMC mayor and even though it took some time to replace them, they were finally booted out. Currently, three NGOs – Mitra, Blue Sky and Nature – are doing the cleaning job and according to the residents, they are doing well.”
