New Delhi, July 23 -- At 87, when most choose rest and retirement, Inderjit Singh Sidhu chooses public service, with a broom and a garbage bag in hand.

A retired Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Punjab Police, Sidhu superannuated in 1996. Nearly three decades later, he's still serving, this time, by cleaning up his neighbourhood in Chandigarh's Sector 49. Every morning at 6 am, Sidhu sets out to collect litter from the streets, disturbed by the daily sight of garbage piling up in the area.

Sidhu, who lives in the IAS-IPS Officers' Cooperative Society, said he repeatedly complained to civic authorities, but no action followed. "So I decided to do it myself," he told ANI. "There is no shame in cleaning. Cleanliness is next to godliness."...