File picture of waste dumped on a Cuttack roadside during Dussehra immersion last year

Cuttack, Oct. 1: The municipal corporation faces the tough task of maintaining a clean environment ahead of the Dussehra festival starting October 10.

A large number of people have expressed concern as the civic body has so far failed to keep the city clean and garbage can be found dumped on roads in almost every ward.

A senior civic official said a Hyderabad-based company, Ramky Enviro Engineers Limited, was carrying out collection and disposal of waste in 36 of the corporation’s 54 wards. It has been asked to streamline its operations.

Special measures will also be taken for disposal of waste generated during the five-day festival of Dussehra starting next week. The sanitary officers have been asked to monitor the daily collection of waste from various localities so that devotees do not face any problem because of garbage accumulation near puja mandaps.

“We have drawn special plans to ensure the systematic disposal of waste from near various Puja mandaps in the city,” said city health officer P.K. Pradhan.

Pradhan said sweeping would be done twice a day during the festival and two sweepers would be deployed at each puja mandap.

The city usually generates between 300 and 350 tonnes of garbage a day. Of this, around 30 per cent is left to be cleared the next day despite waste being collected twice a day. A corporation official said waste generation usually increased by 50 to 70 tonnes during Dusshera.

At a meeting held yesterday, councillors had demanded special sanitation measures for Dussehra, including installation of bins for systematic collection of waste from near puja pandals.

“There is an urgent need to improve sanitation as lakhs of devotees will throng the city for Puja celebrations. We have asked senior officials to deploy extra manpower and collect garbage on time,” said councillor of ward No. 46 Santosh Bhola.