Though the Municipal Corporation of Dehradun (MCD) has started the Rispana cleanliness campaign under the Mission Rispana programme, the corporation does not have enough resources and funds to carry out the work properly.

A few weeks back, the district magistrate, Ashish Kumar Srivastava directed the corporation to start a cleanliness campaign for the revival of the Rispana River and install dustbins along the river simultaneously to restrict the garbage accumulation there again by locals. The DM had also assured  the corporation to provide funds for the revival of the Rispana River. However, the corporation has received no such fund from the district administration so far as per the municipal officials.

According to the chief municipal health officer, Dr Kailash Joshi, the MCD has deployed only around 20 workers including sanitation workers and labourers to clean the river as the corporation also manages the sanitation of the whole city too with limited equipment and manpower. When the corporation would receive funds from the district administration, MCD would certainly increase the number of workers and pieces of equipment for the cleaning of the river, said Joshi.

Meanwhile, the officials disclosed that there are many narrow locations across the river where the accumulated garbage cannot be extracted through any trolley or JCB and the workers have to clean the heap of garbage physically. Talking about the campaign, the municipal sanitation inspector, Rajbeer Singh Chauhan stated that the corporation started cleaning the Rispana River about ten days ago and so far, they have collected and cleaned over 300 metric tonnes of garbage besides silt and sludge waste. "We have deployed around 20 workers who are cleaning the river with the help of one JCB and four tractor trolleys. Till now, we have cleaned the stretch of the Rispana River that passes through Rispana Bridge to Rajeev Nagar and Dalanwala following the Chuna Bhatta area," said Chauhan. Officials informed that they will continue the cleaning campaign with the limited resources but it might take several months to clean the 18 kilometres stretch of the river that falls under the corporation.