Bhubaneswar, July 8: The city's beautification drive for the ongoing Asian Athletics Championship has drawn resident complaints, who have alleged that the administration has taken up the drive in an arbitrary and partial manner.

The residents alleged that the drive was restricted to central parts of the city which the athletes and delegates might visit.

"The administration beautified the city, dug up roads, demolished unauthorised structures and dumped the debris in front of our houses. This is intolerable. Our locality is not a site to dump debris," said Nandan Vihar resident Nirakar Sahu.

The administration has also not bothered to maintain or beauty the flyovers along NH-5 except a few portions, the residents alleged. The authorities cleaned up the Rasulgarh junction, painted the Vani Vihar and Jayadev Vihar intersections, but have not proceeded further up to CRPF Square and Fire Station Square.

The CRPF Square and the Fire Station Square are located ahead of Kalinga Stadium on NH-5. Both the junctions on the highway have become a dumping ground for debris and construction materials. This has defaced the city and caused hurdles for commuters, the residents alleged.

Mayor Ananta Narayan Jena said they did not display any discriminatory attitude while undertaking the beautification drive. "Since we got very little time to transform the city for the event, we focused more on the central parts. Now, we are beautifying the outer sections. It has been taken up in a phased manner," Jena said.