Pilibhit: Cocking a snook at Prime Minister’s Swachchh Bharat Mission, panchayat raj department’s sanitation workers have transformed Sherpur gram panchayat under Puranpur tehsil — the biggest in Bareilly division — into a massive garbage dump.The area has a population of 30,000 villagers and all are at risk of contracting infectious diseases due to the filth that has accumulated on the streets and choked drains of village.Taking serious cognizance of the matter, chief development officer (CDO) Vijay Krishna Bhagwat on Friday ordered that the gram panchayat be cleaned within the next 48 hours.Incidentally, the district administration has launched a swachchh campaign across the rural belt from August 2 under which special sanitation teams have been deployed to remove litter and filth from villages.Unlike the division of gram panchayats into villages, the Sherpur gram panchayat comprises 13 wards like an urban area for proper maintenance of its vast area. But this is not so.Locals — social volunteer Menu Barkati, Shoyeb Ali of ward number 8 and Dilshad Hussain of ward number 10 — lamented that Sherpur’s heaps of filth has made everyone’s life hell.They said “the choked drains were overflowing, filling the streets with sewage. But sanitation workers remained absent from duty. Despite drawing the attention of panchayat department officials, all pleas had fallen on deaf ears”.On being asked about this, Rizaqat Noor, husband of woman pradhan of Sherpur Nazia Khanam, said the panchayat raj department had deployed five sanitation workers at Sherpur and of these, two were attached to other village panchayats about one year ago.“The pradhan repeatedly submitted my written requisition to officials for the deployment of at least 10 sanitation workers in this gram panchayat in view of its huge population and vast area but no one has paid any heed,” he said.The block development officer at Puranpur, Satish Pandey, who was given 48 hours’ time by the CDO to clear the filth from Sherpur, accepted that the panchayat raj department had failed to carry out its duties in reviewing and maintaining sanitation of this vast village.The assistant development officer of panchayat raj department at Puranpur, Kaushalendra Chauhan, who is responsible for sanitation works in Sherpur, could not be contacted despite repeated efforts.

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