Civic workers on leave, Indoreans show up with brooms for Swachh sweep

INDORE: Here’s why Indore is the Swachh champ, five times in a row. Thousands of Indoreans picked up brooms and trash bags on Sunday morning and went about cleaning roads, parks and streets in their localities as 7,000 sanitation workers had been given the day off due to a community festival.

From the business hub of Vijay Nagar to the temple area of Khajrana and the suburb of Sukhliya, everyone was connected by the same goal: to keep the city’s Swachh image spotless. This consciousness and common cause among Indoreans, more than the administration’s efforts, praiseworthy as they are, is the reason MP’s commercial capital is unbeaten in the Swachh Survekshan Awards.

On Sunday, around 7,000 grade-4 civic employees from the Valmiki community took a day’s leave after overnight celebrations of Goga Navami — one of their biggest festivals. So, Indoreans filled in for them.