Citizens Call Out Waste Crisis in Dehradun, Launch ‘Safai Mitra’ to Fix Accountability Gaps

Dehradun:

The Dehradun Citizens Forum, a citizen-driven collective of over 500 residents of Dehradun, today reiterated its strong demand for a garbage-free and waste-burning-free Dehradun, while also launching a citizen-centric mobile application, Safai Mitra, aimed at improving accountability and responsiveness in the city’s waste management system.

Dehradun Citizens Forum represents a diverse cross-section of the city, including professionals, entrepreneurs, teachers, environmentalists, activists, retirees, business owners, and young citizens. Bound by a shared concern for Dehradun’s future, the Forum has consistently engaged with civic and environmental issues impacting the city. Its vision is to evolve into a credible platform that acts as a “Setu” (bridge) between citizens and the government—facilitating dialogue, highlighting gaps, and contributing to more participatory and sustainable urban governance.

However, the backdrop to today’s press interaction was one of growing concern and frustration. Members of the Forum expressed strong dissatisfaction with the persistent gap between repeated claims made by the Dehrdaun Municipal Corporation and the ground realities of waste accumulation and open burning across Dehradun. Despite multiple assurances over the past year, the situation in many parts of the city remains inadequate, with citizens frequently witnessing uncollected waste, unmanaged dumping sites, and instances of waste burning.

Addressing the media, Dehradun Citizens Forum representatives emphasized that while several meetings, communications, and public engagements have taken place; including platforms such as Mayor Samvad and discussions at Doon Library involving senior officials; the outcomes on the ground have been limited. “There has been dialogue, but not enough decisive action,” was a sentiment echoed by several speakers.

Jagmohan Mendiratta introduced the Forum and its members, highlighting that Dehradun Citizen Forum today represents a strong and growing network of nearly 500 engaged citizens, including former defence personnel, doctors, engineers, chartered accountants, and experienced professionals from multiple fields. He underlined that the Forum operates as a flat, democratic, and community-driven initiative, where members contribute collectively without rigid hierarchies.

Retu Chatterjee shared an overview of the Forum’s journey and its sustained efforts over the past year to raise civic concerns through structured engagement. She referred to commitments made by officials during earlier interactions and pointed out that citizens are yet to see meaningful, measurable improvements on the ground.

Further, Ramana Kumar and Nitin Shah detailed the Forum’s correspondence and meetings with the Municipal Corporation, noting that while communication channels exist, implementation and follow-through continue to be weak. The lack of visible improvement, despite repeated assurances, has led to increasing public disillusionment.

In this context, Dehradun Citizen Forum has chosen to take a constructive step by collaborating with the Convergent Defence Foundation (CDF) in launching the Safai Mitra mobile application during the press meet. Present at the launch were Major Ritesh Uniyal and Prashant Uniyal, the founders of the web solution, who explained that Safai Mitra is designed as a citizen reporting and grievance redressal tool. The solution allows residents to directly report waste-related issues such as garbage accumulation, missed collection, or waste burning through a simple mobile interface, with complaints being automatically routed to the concerned authorities.

The founders also shared that based on initial ground feedback, the scope and functionality of the app will be expanded in the coming months to make it more robust and responsive to citizen needs.

Explaining the initiative, Anoop Nautiyal stated that Safai Mitra is not intended to replace existing systems, but to strengthen citizen participation and improve last-mile accountability. He also presented excerpts from newspaper reports over the past year highlighting promises made by the Municipal Corporation on cleanliness and waste management. He termed this as an example of ” Shifting Goalposts and Broken Promises” by Dehradun Nagar Nigam.

The Forum expressed hope that the Municipal Corporation and the office of the Mayor will take this initiative in the right spirit and use it as an opportunity to improve responsiveness and rebuild public trust. At the same time, Dehradun Citizens Forum made it clear that citizen-led efforts cannot be a substitute for systemic governance, and that institutional accountability and sustained administrative action remain essential.

Concluding the session, Bharti Jain thanked the media and participants for their presence and expressed hope that the authorities will move beyond assurances and take visible, time-bound action to address the city’s waste management challenges. The Forum reiterated its commitment to continue working collaboratively while also holding systems accountable.

The Dehradun Citizens Forum reaffirmed that creating a clean, sustainable, and livable city requires both citizen participation and administrative responsibility and that the time for intent has passed; what is now needed is consistent and measurable action on the ground.

Dehradun Citizens Forum members Shankar Dutt Uniyal, Rinku Singh, Jaya Singh, Devendra Kandpal, Shishir Prashant, Dr Sumeet Goyal, Abhishek Bhatt, Praveen Upreti and others were present during the press meet.