A heap of garbage near Darbhanga Tower. Picture by Mukesh Kumar Jha

The poor waste management by Darbhanga Municipal Corporation coupled with the exit of a private sanitation firm has left various parts of the town littered with garbage.

The civic body had entrusted A2Z Infrastructure Private Limited, a Gurgaon-based firm, to look after 16 out of the 48 wards in the town from August 2011. All upscale colonies, business hubs and administrative blocks in the town are under the jurisdiction of these wards. The trained workers of the private agency used to visit each house in the colonies to collect waste.

The firm, however, stopped its services in the town one-and-a-half months ago, alleging that it was not paid on time.

According to sources, the DMC fails to cope up with the work in the town because of lack of resources and manpower crunch.

Sources in the civic body admitted to the shortcomings in their set-up.

Mayor Gauri Paswan told The Telegraph: “The Hayaghat MLA had raised voice against alleged irregularities in weighing of garbage by the private agency. A probe was ordered around five months ago. We could not make full payment to the company, as the investigation was not complete. We assured that the firm that the payment would be done after the probe was over. However, the company stopped its services.”

Paswan added: “We were satisfied with their services. We did not want the company to stop work. Now, the load of keeping the town clean has increased. We also do not have proper infrastructure and there’s an acute shortage of manpower.”

Lalit Narayan Mithila University psychology professor G.S. Rai, a resident of Rambag Colony under ward 14 of DMC, said: “Earlier, the A2Z workers used to visit houses regularly to cart away garbage. After the firm stopped services, the residents started throwing litter either on the road or near someone else’s door. Not only in my colony, this is the case in every other colony of the town. We find garbage strewn on streets everywhere.”

Mishra Tola resident Anil Kumar Mishra said: “The DMC workers are collecting waste but not regularly as it was being done by the private agency workers. It is not possible for the DMC workers to collect waste from each door like the A2Z workers. However, the civic body workers are more prompt this time in collecting waste after the private company’s exit.”