Ayodhya 2.0: A Clean Up Task In Progress

"At least for the sake of these officers who guard the Ram Janma Bhoomi may the dispute be solved and the mandir be made once and for all" this remark by my mother four years ago describing the tension that gripped the entire area around the then 'disputed land', had haunted me until I landed in Ayodhya.

But as I strolled around the Ram Janma Bhoomi last week, I realised this is precisely what has changed. The guards are still there, but they aren't tensed; they are still keeping watch but not with their brows creased and their vigil heightened.

‘Ab tanav kum ho gaya hai…kyunki ab ye ‘vivadit’ nahin rahi’ says an office seated at a make shift milk vendor stall. He has been deputed multiple times on Ram Janma Bhumi duty over the past three decades, he says, adding that it is the first time that things are normal, as the vendor pours him a glass of milk.

The vendor Brij Lal Yadav is among the many who are counting days for their means of earning to be razed to the ground. But he isn't complaining, for he says, his shop, a temporary tinned structure, is too small a price to be paying for the 'bhavya mandir' that is finally being made. "And so is development. Everything is changing for the good…Ram paidi bani hai, Sarayu ghat Bana hai…Vikas hua yahaan, aur ho raha hai” says Yadav.

The workers from Rajasthan are back at the workshop and chipping away at what are to be the building blocks of this mammoth structure. The stones that have been carved earlier too are being polished and awaiting their turn to be a part of the temple.

Thus motivated as we headed out to discover the 'vikas', we make our way to the Ram Ki Paidi, whose 'spectacular' view during Dasara last year had made headlines with images taking the virtual world by storm.

Eight out of the 108 kunds that were 'crowd discovered' through an interesting hashtag campaign 'kahaan hai mera talaab' and 'Aao bachalo pani' which saw citizens spot lakes, ponds and other water bodies in their vicinity and share them with the administration.

"Elsewhere in the world, people have houses that are waterfront; here we have people turning their backs to the sources of water owing to the dirt, the stench and the like. So the key thought was to make the back the new front, to engage people in this process and to ensure they take responsibility for their upkeep," he explained.

Three core aspects on which work is happening, as he elucidated, are

1) Clearing encroachments and creating a minimalistic design around these kunds where people can visit and spend time at

2) Water quality improvement

To begin with community engagement, Ghosh explains how a Facebook hashtag campaign took the town and its youth by storm and received a massive response, to the extent that more than 180 water bodies were 'discovered' by citizens when the quest was for just the 108 kunds.

"The idea was to engage them right from the beginning and not after the process is complete. And since we weren't dependent on govt funds, but CSR ones, we had a relatively free hand and could go ahead with the creation of a model, started the hashtag campaign and though it took some time to catch up, the involvement was unpredicted". The responses that poured in ranged from ponds spotted to encroachment details to leaking taps to be filled to landfills.

"This model isn't new, but an adaptation of what Ram himself did for Ayodhya. "Until the time of Dasharath, the model of governance of the Ikshvaku clan was that the king stayed in the town centre and the citizens in villages. But Ram got raja and praja together and these 108 kunds of that era were created as life flourished around the source of water," explains Ghosh, adding that this is precisely the model that they seek to replicate.

"Development can't be just about tourism, hospitality can't be just about hotels that seek staff which can be seen as employment. Our focus is on creating infrastructure that created more organic local employment opportunities," explains Ghosh, as he shares the plan for the development of the kunds. 'We need to create local employment, so the plan is to have a priest (maybe trained at a Sanskrit college here) who handles the rituals at the talab while also ensuring its sanctity is maintained.

People had a deep apathy for water and that is what we are trying to correct and connect in this whole process. We are getting people back and thinking of entrepreneurial opportunities for people to work, he says, elucidating that the focus is on enhancing the quality of life by improving education, water quality, sewage management, aspirational works that make Ayodhya a destination for various sectors to set up base here.

Work then began on infusing the herbal concentrate - a 1000 arka botanical extracts - and treating the water, which then served as a case study that was sent to the NMCG while also encouraging youth to be part of the efforts. This has now been expanded and work is on for the cleanup of at least eight kunds before the Deepotsav.

Another massive operation in this regard has been the cleanup of the Sita Jheel, which until a few months ago looked like nothing more than an expansive spread of garbage. A site visit through the entire stretch of the lake up to the point where the cleanup has been initiated gives one a sense of the scale of activity that the space will see in the coming few weeks.

The Warrior 1200, a massive waste segregation machine, has been put in place by the agency handling the cleanup. JCB's are seen continuously feeding this monster of a machine that then separates the waste into three portions - one that can be turned into manure completely - the good earth part, one that can be used to fill low lying areas as debris, and one that can be used in cement factories. The machine has been at work for the past 20 days, informs project manager Yogesh Rana as he demonstrates its working.

"The schedule plan is to run it for 14-15 hours a day, subject to the weather conditions. The machine handles 80 to 100 tonne of waste per hour with total waste as of now being 68,000 ton. Although the cost comes upto 500-600 per tonne we are doing it at Rs 444 per tonne which is the the government rate. But this was our first project in UP and had the name of Ayodhya associated with it, so we have taken this up as a pilot project here," he adds.

"The key issue is that Ayodhya Nagar Nigam itself is at a nascent stage and we are trying our best to reach a point where we have in house team of experts to understand these core issues. Meanwhile, in the run up to the Deepotsav, DPRs have been prepared for the open drains as well as the roads, which have been presented to the administration and await sanction," she explains.

"But the tasks like door-to-door waste collection has been in place in some areas and we are looking forward to extend them. Recently, a tender has also been issued for mechanised sweeping, road cleaning and door to door, and mechanised toilet cleaning. Also, currently we have only 29 km of road suitable for mechanised sweeping, since we don't have such big roads at present."

"Although the rejuvenation of Kunds are being handled by ADA, some ponds like the Ksheer sagar, the Lalbagh ka talab, the Chanaura ka talab, we cleaned up pre-monsoons. We also had the encroachments cleared up, which was a huge step taken by the Municipal Commissioner so we could enhance their capacity," she explains.

From installing incinerators for diapers and other hazardous wastes, creating mohalla committees that then ensure source segregation and also put in place a community composting system, and creating 'civic sense through IEC - information, education, communication', installing a litter picker machine that is set to task regularly as well as surfing special VIP movements, 'we are doing whatever we can to ensure we are on track to become the global spiritual capital', says Shukla as she signs off.