Garbage piled up on Ashok Rajpath and Gandhi Maidan in Patna on Thursday. Pictures by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

Patna, July 21: The city streets today looked like trash bins a day after virtually turning into pools because of incessant rain, as the private company responsible for carting away waste from the nine major roads suspended its services.

The firm — A2Z Infrastructure Private Limited — stopped the garbage collection work from early morning today, compelling the residents to dribble the trash strewn along the streets and dumped near their home. The sanitation went for a complete toss in the city as the company used to cart trash from nine wards under Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) besides the equal number of streets.

The private firm sent a formal notice regarding stopping the work to the civic body yesterday. The company officials said they were not in a position to continue with the service after PMC failed to clear its outstanding dues. The civic body has not paid a single penny to the company since January last year, when the firm was awarded the contract of garbage collection.

Within hours of the suspension of the service, all prime roads were seen strewn with garbage. Residents said the PMC officials’ contingency arrangements hardly worked.

“I saw Ashok Rajpath, Exhibition Road and Boring Road full of trash on way from my Sultanganj home to the bank in Patliputra Colony where I work. I cannot make out why the corporation has taken the private firm and the people of the city for granted?” Gaurav Kumar said, fearing worse situation if PMC did not clear the dues of the firm soon.

The civic body had promised to clear at least 75 per cent of the total Rs 7.6 crore outstanding bills of A2Z Infrastructure Private Limited within 15 days after the company had threatened to suspend work from July 4. But the corporation failed to keep its promise despite the empowered standing committee’s repeated instructions to clear the dues within the stipulated time, said sources.

“This situation has arisen primarily because of the inefficiency of the commissioner and his subordinates. I do not know why he is deliberately delaying the process of payment to the private firm,” mayor Afzal Imam said.

Chandrama Singh, the additional municipal commissioner (planning and development), said a six-member committee had been constituted to verify the bills produced by the private firm.

“The committee would finalise its report by (Thursday) the evening and present it before the empowered standing committee. We will act upon the final decision taken by the committee,” Singh said.

The additional municipal commissioner said special arrangements were made to ensure proper sanitation in the city after a meeting this morning with the executive officers of the four municipal circles in the corporation limits.

“Additional equipment, including four tippers, two payloaders and two compacters, were pressed into service to keep the New Capital circle, where the private firm was most active, clean. In the first shift, 30 sanitation workers were diverted from wards to the main roads while in the second shift 30 daily wagers would be deployed to cart away the waste,” Singh said.

Sheshank Shekhar Sinha, the executive officer of the New Capital circle, said though the corporation could not guarantee that no effect of the strike would be visible, efforts were on to minimise its impact.

Singh said two extra tractors were hired to cart away garbage from the areas under the Kankerbagh circle. “Also, five workers have been diverted from wards to roads in the first shift. Five additional workers would be deployed in the second shift,” he said.

In the Bankipore circle, where the private agency used to collect waste from all the five garbage collection points, an extra payloader and a tractor were pressed into service to remove trash. Similar plans had been made for the Patna City circle, Singh said.

According to the agreement between the private firm and the civic body, A2Z Infrastructure Private Limited is responsible for cleaning Bailey Road, Boring Road, Boring Canal Road, Frazer Road, Ashok Rajpath, Old Bypass Road, Exhibition Road, Beer Chand Patel Road and Hardinge Road. It also carted away garbage from ward number 1 to 9 of PMC.