The spick-and-span Collectorate Road during Chhath (below) and garbage dumped on it on Sunday. Pictures by Jai Prakash

Patna was at its sparkling best for four days during Chhath but now pockmarks have resurfaced on the city’s face.

The city was spick and span as residents actively participated in keeping it clean during the festival. But with Chhath over, the zeal to keep it clean has gone. Filth and garbage have returned on the roads and in localities.

Even the various ghats, specially cleaned up for Chhath, now wear an unkempt look of abandoned, or dumped, prayer accessories. The roads leading to various ghats, like Anta Ghat and Mahendru Ghat, were extremely dirty on Sunday. Chhath devotees had left behind clothes, puja calendar, diyas (earthen lamps), vermilion packets, matchboxes and disposable plastic tumblers.

The Telegraph asked residents why they cannot keep their city clean round the year. Many blamed other residents for the dirty ghats and garbage piled up in localities. Some said it was the civic body’s responsibility to keep the city clean and that of puja committees to clean up ghats after Chhath.

Vinod Kumar (35) came to Anta Ghat today for a puja but irked by the dirt all around left for another ghat. He said: “This looks like hell. Puja accessories are lying everywhere. People didn’t even dispose of plastic tumblers they had tea in. They don’t at all think of keeping their city clean. How could devotees leave everything behind at the ghat? Cleaning it would be a Herculean task for the administration,” he said.

Arvind Kumar Diwakar, a teacher at Sir Ganesh Dutt Memorial College, was disappointed with Mahendru Ghat. “Devotees should not dump puja material at the ghats. They should bring their stuff in plastic bags and dump waste in dustbins. They have no right to dirty the ghats. After all, the essence of Chhath is cleanliness, as devotees are required to observe puja in tidy surroundings. In many localities, volunteers initiate cleanliness drives much ahead of the festival. But, what happens after Chhath is a matter of concern. People forget all about sanitation. They not only dump used puja materials at the ghats, they are back to dumping garbage in various localities,” Arvind said.

But Anil Kumar, sub-divisional officer, welfare, said: “I don’t think it is the responsibility of devotees to clean up ghats after Chhath. It is primarily the Patna Municipal Corporation’s responsibility to look after sanitation in general and that of puja committees to look after sanitation at the ghats.”

Patna Municipal Corporation mayor Afzal Imam, however, differed with Kumar. He said: “I don’t think a civic body’s initiative alone can keep a city spick and span if residents don’t co-operate. It is highly insensitive of residents to dump puja materials at the ghats and garbage in their localities after Chhath. London is spick and span only because people there are conscious about cleanliness. Even they chew bubble gum, but they dump it in a dustbin and don’t spit it on the road after chewing it.”

Imam, however, could not say how much waste was generated during Chhath this year.