Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Swachch Bharat initiative, the railways have undertaken a massive cleanliness drive. Going by the spanking platforms at stations like CST, it is safe to say that the good news lies in the fact that it can be done. The bad news however, is that every railway official – right down to the last man – agreed that this kind of mobilisation of manpower, NGOs, celebrities, corporates and common commuters, is impossible to do on a daily basis.
A senior city-based railway official informed that the railway employees have been working for the drive since almost a fortnight. He said, "Every single department was working in tandem to make this a huge success. There was not a single file pertaining to this drive that got stuck even for a moment.
Adding to how there were no glitches, the official said, "Employees put in their best, imprest money was replenished quickly and everything went like clockwork." But can it be done every day? "No," he admitted.
Even Thursday's mega-cleanliness drive showcased the stations and the railway stretches in between two stations remaining as dirty as any other day. Elaborating about how that would be a taxing job, the official said, "Cleaning the section between two stations is a different ball game altogether and we don't think the railways would be able to achieve that alone. The tracks at many stretches is actually the only garbage disposal outlet for slums that are touching the railway walls."
Stretches like the one between Matunga and Sion, the one near platform number one of Sandhurst Road, Masjid remained as filthy as usual. Talking about the area around Bandra station, another senior official informed, "It is almost impossible to clean that place because it is a station with slums on either side. The station is actually an extension of these people's daily life. So children play on the tracks, women dry clothes at the yard and the houses closest to the railway wall throw garbage onto the railway territory. Despite this, the accounts department employees of Western Railway put up a very good show there."
However the underlying theme of the cleanliness drive was optimism, as minister of state for railway Manoj Sinha put it. "We must be optimistic about this drive and our habit of throwing stuff around and generally dirtying public spaces will decrease and then get stamped out. This is a five-year programme and the government is so serious about it that I'm confident we will turn the corner. People will have to participate in it completely and ensure they keep the surroundings clean and get others to do the same," said Sinha, who wielded his broom on the dust-laden outer walls of the sprawling CST terminus on Thursday afternoon.
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