Mokokchung town was awarded the “Cleanest City in North East India under the Population of 25 to 50 Thousand Category” by the ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs in 2020 during the ‘Swachh Mahotsav 2020’ campaign. It came in as a bit of a surprise because, to be honest, we did not deserve it.
If anything, it was a “less unclean city” award than a “cleanest city” award actually. This is not to discredit the efforts made, and are still being made, by the authorities concerned and the citizens in general but we all know just how unclean our beloved town is.
As much as we would like to pretend that all is gleam and clean, we just cannot sweep a whole town under the carpet. That award in 2020 was a ‘chance’ award which we got for paper works and not ground works, one is made to believe.
The latest ULBs Assessment Report released by the Chief Minister of Nagaland on Tuesday in Kohima has unmasked Mokokchung. It is unfortunate that Mokokchung municipality did not find any mention in any of the various awards categories.
Tuli Town Council and Mangkolemba Town Council did receive recognition, bringing some cheers to Mokokchung. However, this is not the end of the journey and we can always catch up with the other ULBs.
There is no magic formula to keep a town clean. It is also not a one off event but a perennial process. There are also a lot of factors that determine how effectively an urban center can keep itself clean. It requires a lot of planning and execution. It will also require sufficient resources to sustain the process.
Apart from the government or the civic body, much would depend on the citizens, organizations, activists and philanthropists to actually keep our town clean.
Perhaps, the most ideal way for us would be to get the basics right first of all (the rest will follow) by engaging in an intensive mass awareness and sensitization campaign.