Jaipur: Jaipur Municipal Corporation (JMC) has set a 100-day target to improve civic amenities across 150 wards, with Rs 100 crore worth of development works planned ahead of Diwali. However, councillors from minority-dominated Walled City wards allege that diverting sanitation workers elsewhere is disrupting routine cleaning.Mayor Sunil Kothari and deputy mayor Saroj Kanwar outlined the plan Friday. The ‘Shat Divas Sankalp’ campaign, launched on Oct 5, aims to improve cleanliness, street lighting, roads and public spaces.“We want Jaipur to receive the kind of praise that Indore gets,” Kothari said.JMC plans to deploy 3,000 additional sanitation workers across all wards for a month from Saturday to manage festive waste. Cleaning machines will operate in two shifts, with 45 mechanised units, including JCBs, dumpers and tractor-trolleys, deployed during the second shift. Special cleaning drives will be held twice a week in one ward of each zone.Councillors said the campaign had affected routine sanitation. Congress councillors had earlier objected to the initial roster, alleging their wards were scheduled for cleaning only after Diwali. JMC later revised the schedule to cover all wards before the festival.Mohammad Zakariya, councillor from Ward 114, said nearly half the sanitation workers assigned to his ward were being deployed elsewhere daily. “Earlier, 30 workers were assigned to one ward formed by merging five wards. Now, there are only 60 workers for all five wards. How are we supposed to answer residents?” he said.Ward 117 councillor Sanjeeda Begum said all localities deserved equal attention. “Festivals are for everyone, not just one community,” she said.JMC commissioner Om Kasera acknowledged that special drives could affect routine work, but said efforts were being made to ensure adequate staffing in every ward.The plan includes installing 10,000 LED streetlights in phases, with 6,000 targeted before Diwali, repairing roads and drains, and removing construction waste. Eight litter-picker machines will be deployed, and 50 sewer jetting machines will be maintained for two years.Under ‘Rang De Gulabi 2.0’, more than 600 public walls across 13 zones will be painted on Oct 24, followed by ‘Operation Clean Sweep 2.0’ on Oct 31. Heritage landmarks will be illuminated, cultural programmes organised and market associations given cleanliness support for 11 days, up from seven.
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