A sanitation worker sprinkles lime near garbage vats at Sabzibagh in Patna on Sunday. Telegraph picture

Patna, July 24: Senior officers of the civic body today hit the streets to ensure proper garbage collection as the suspension of services of the private agency assigned to cart trash in select parts of the city entered the fourth day.

The firm, A2Z Infrastructure Private Limited, suspended its services owing to non-payment of dues, triggering garbage stink across the town. With the deadlock over the firm’s dues likely to continue for a few more days and public uproar over accumulation of trash growing, a team of Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) officers, including commissioner Divesh Sehara, came out on roads early this morning to ensure garbage was collected properly from streets and colonies. During the exercise, an FIR was lodged against Clean India, a non-government organisation (NGO) that collects garbage from offices and commercial complexes, because one of its employees dumped trash on Boring Canal Road.

“We have asked firms to dispose garbage at earmarked waste collection points. But the NGO worker was spotted unloading a tipper full of garbage on Boring Canal Road around 12noon. The commissioner immediately ordered to lodge an FIR against the NGO. Similarly, Payal Hotel near Patna College on Ashok Rajpath was found disposing of rotten food on roadside around 11.30am. A fine of Rs 500 was imposed on the hotel on the spot,” a PMC spokesperson said.

He added that special arrangements were made to ensure timely and proper waste collection in most parts of the city. “We can say that we succeeded about 85 per cent in our efforts. We covered areas like Kankerbagh, Ashok Rajpath, Exhibition Road, Fraser Road, Boring Road and Boring Canal Road. The sanitation workers have been directed to sprinkle lime after collecting waste to maintain hygiene,” the spokesperson also said.

Besides increased number of sweepers and sanitation workers, PMC officers pressed into service equipment like tipper, payloader and compacters to minimises the impact of the suspension of services by A2Z Infrastructure Private Limited, as PMC did not fulfil its promise of clearing its dues.

The six-member committee formed to verify the bills produced by the company submitted its findings to top PMC officers yesterday. Insiders said a large number of irregularities and violation of agreed clauses on the part of the private firm were pointed out in the report, to be sent to the urban development department officers and the mayor on Monday.

“The bills and photographs produced by the private firm for five months reveal that a compactor was used to reduce the size of 1,200-tonne waste at a time. In reality, its capacity is only about 600 tonnes. There are several irregularities, hinting at the company producing wrong bills. All these have been pointed out in the report,” said a source in the corporation.

Mayor Afzal Imam said he would be able to comment on the issue only after going through the findings of the panel.