AGARTALA: My home is clean, so why should I think of outside, seems to be the unspoken philosophy of many Agartala residents, as a photograph from a busy market lane shows a fit, able bodied man dumping garbage beside a municipal dustbin, while an elderly woman with an intellectual disability quietly places her waste inside it.
The scene, captured at the Lake Chowmuhani market, could easily pass as a case study in civic sense, except the roles are reversed from what one might expect. The man, presumably capable of reading every banner, warning sign and fine notice put up by the Agartala Municipal Corporation, chose to set his garbage down a few feet short of the bin. The woman, who by most accounts has never heard of the Smart City project and possibly never will, walked up, paused as if weighing her options, and dropped her waste exactly where it belonged.
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It is a small moment, but it says a great deal about a city that likes to complain loudly about broken promises while quietly making a mess of its own footpaths. Smart City banners across Agartala continue to warn citizens against littering, some even listing fines between Rs 1,000 and Rs 5,000. Yet garbage routinely gathers directly beneath these very banners, as though the warning itself doubles as a marker for where to dump.
The irony, of course, is not lost on anyone paying attention. Residents who are quick to blame the government for potholes, garbage collection delays and unfinished drains are often the same ones who cannot be bothered to walk the extra three steps to a dustbin sitting right in front of them. Cleanliness, it appears, is a virtue reserved strictly for the inside of one’s own home.
Perhaps the city does not need another banner, another fine, or another slogan. Perhaps it simply needs more people willing to pause, like the elderly woman did, and ask themselves where the garbage in their hand is actually supposed to go. Until then, Agartala’s Smart City project may keep expanding on paper, while its footpaths tell a rather different story.
